Posts Tagged ‘FITNESSGRAM’

Body Massachusetts Index & BMI Issues

Sunday, June 28th, 2009

By John Kruse

Recently, Massachusetts stipulated that measurement of Body Mass Index (BMI) will be required in grades one, four, seven and ten in public schools. This new requirement is an attempt to do something about rising obesity rates in children. The program is slated to start this fall and was decided upon by the Massachusetts’ Public Health Council.

BMI is calculated by dividing weight (in kilograms) by height (in meters) squared. Required BMI screenings are certainly controversial. Critics often cite the shortcomings of the measurement with various ethnic groups. For this reason, the FITNESSGRAM assessment uses a criterion that is much more forgiving than the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) popular norm-referenced growth charts.

A recent study published in the April issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine found that one in four preschoolers (4-year-olds) in the US are obese. The cut-off point to determine obesity was a BMI at the 95th percentile. According to the CDC’s growth charts a BMI at the 95th percentile for girls and boys is considered obese. Interestingly, the FITNESSGRAM criteria starts at 5-years-old (i.e.: they don’t have a standard for below age 5) and a BMI at the 95th percentile (approximately a BMI of 18) falls within FITNESSGRAM’s “Healthy Fitness Zone.” In other words, who are we to believe? CDC standards say these youngsters are obese. FITNESSGRAM standards suggest these children are healthy (assuming their BMI remains the same at age 5).

Other issues with BMI exist for individuals with athletic builds and a high percentages of muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat and its not uncommon for these individuals to have BMI scores suggesting they are overweight or obese.  These issues will usually only pertain to adults since children haven’t experienced the hormonal changes necessary to build a significant amount of muscle mass.

While Massachusetts is requiring BMI screenings, they will also allow parents to opt out of the measurement. Perhaps parents in Massachusetts should be given the option of skin-fold measures of body composition due to the shortcomings of BMI. After all, if overall health is the objective, why not use a measurement that is calibrated off the gold standard–hydrostatic weighing.

Additional note: Check out FitMet’s free BMI Calculator and embed it on you website.

References:

http://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts.htm

Sarah E. Anderson; Robert C. Whitaker. Prevalence of Obesity Among US Preschool Children in Different Racial and Ethic Groups. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2009;163(4):344-348.



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Georgia Likely to Add Required Fitness Testing

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

By John Kruse

Last week, Georgia’s Senate voted 34-14 to require annual fitness testing for students starting in 2011/2012.  The proposal has now been sent to the state’s governor for final approval.

If approved, Georgia will join a list of other states who already require annual fitness testing.  California, for example, requires physical fitness testing in grades 5, 7 and 9.

According to an article in The Daily Citizen, the new version of legislation did away with proposed twice yearly weigh-ins that would be used to measure body mass index and instead forces school districts to come up with an annual fitness assessment.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.  Will school districts choose the popular FITNESSGRAM or President’s Challenge fitness assessments?  Or, will they instead create their own assessment?

The Daily Citizen article also points out that the idea is to reward students who attain the new benchmark. This is where things get really interesting!

School districts will have a tough decision in establishing this benchmark since FITNESSGRAM’s standard, known as the “Healthy Fitness Zone,” is cirterion based and spans approximately the 20th to 60th percentiles.  This means that students would only have to reach the 20th percentile to be in the “Healthy Fitness Zone” and achieve the benchmark.  The President’s Challenge, on the other hand, uses a more rigorous norm-reference where students can strive for awards at either the 50th or 85th percentiles in all five tests.

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Cardiovascular Fitness References

Saturday, February 28th, 2009

Part 4 of a continuing series.

Parts 1 through 3

By John Kruse

Table I

NORMS
FOR MAXIMAL OXYGEN CONSUMPTION (ml/kg/min)
AGE Poor Fair Average Good Superior
4-6 boys 36-40 41-44 45-53 54-58 59+
girls 36-39 40-43 44-52 53-56 57+
7-9 boys 46-49 50-52 53-61 62-64 65+
girls 46-48 49-51 52-58 59-62 63+
10-11 boys 45-48 49-52 53-60 61-63 64+
girls 44-46 47-49 50-55 56-57 58+
12-13 boys 49-51 52-53 45-59 60-61 62+
girls 42-44 45-46 47-52 53-55 56+
14-15 men 51-53 54-56 57-62 63-65 66+
women 36-38 39-42 43-49 50-53 54+
16-17 men 45-48 49-52 53-62 63-66 67+
women 39-41 42-44 45-50 51-52 53+
18-19 men 46-49 50-53 54-63 64-67 68+
women 39-41 42-44 45-51 52-54 55+
20-29 men 46-49 50-44 55-63 64-67 68+
wome 39-41 42-44 45-52 53-55 56+

Source: Mastropaolo et al.
Please note: Norms are based off of data reported by Åstrand.

Table II

Boys
Age VO2max
10 42-52
11 42-52
12 42-52
13 42-52
14 42-52
15 42-52
16 42-52
17 42-52
17+ 42-52
Girls
Age VO2max
10 39-47
11 38-46
12 37-45
13 36-44
14 35-43
15 35-43
16 35-43
17 35-43
17+ 35-43

Source: Modified table from the FITNESSGRAM, ACTIVITYGRAM Test Administration Manual

Criterion reference used by the Fitnessgram and known as the “healthy fitness zone.”

References:

Åstrand, P.O. Experimental studies of physical working capacity in relation to sex and age. Copenhagen: Enjar Munksgaard, 1952. p. 171.

Brooks, G. A., T. D. Fahey, T.P. White & K.M. Baldwin (2000). Exercise Physiology, Human Bioenergetics and Its Applications (3rd ed.). Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company.

Cureton, K.J., M.A. Sloniger, J.P. O’Bannon, D.M. Black, and W.P. McCormack. A generalized equation for prediction of VO2peak from 1-mile run/walk performance. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 27:445-51, 1995.

DeVries, H., Physiology of Exercise For Physical Education and Athletics. Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown Publishers, 1986. p. 257.

Mastropaolo, J. A., T.W. Bigelow, M. J. Lyon, and Y. Takei. Training manual for the practice of exercise physiology. Paramont, CA: Academy Printing and Publishing Company, 1977. p. 25.

Rowland, T., G. Kline, D. Goff, L. Martel, and L. Ferrone. One-mile run performance and cardiovascular fitness in children. Arch. Pediatr. Adolesc. Med. 153:845-849.

Shaver, L.G. Maximal aerobic power and anaerobic work capacity prediction from various running performances of untrained college men. J. of Sports Med. Phys. Fitness 15:147-0, 1975.

Cureton, KJ, Warren BL. (1990). Criterion-referenced standard for youth health-related fitness tests: a tutorial. Res Q Exerc Sport 61:7-19.

Blair, SN, Kohl HW, Paffenburger RS, Clark DG, Cooper KH, Gibbons LW. 1989. Physical fitness and all-cause mortality: a prospective study of healthy men and women. JAMA 262:2395-2401.

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Mile Run/Walk Compared to Health Standard

Monday, February 16th, 2009

By John Kruse

Sixth grade standard 3.1:

Compare individual physical fitness results with research-based standards for good health.

The last time I discussed this California content standard, I suggested the use of a Google Gadget on the Internet to calculate Body Mass Index.   This time, I’ll discuss some strategies for having students compare their mile run/walk time with standards for good health.

I’ve found that keeping track of mile run/walk times with a spreadsheet can be very useful. This allows me to print a form letter in Microsoft Word in order to provide the students with their times. The form letter directs the student to my school web-page and also serves as a worksheet for homework.

On the web-page, they find information about the mile run/walk, its use for measuring cardiovascular fitness, a brief explanation of why cardiovascular fitness is important and standards for good health. The rest of the form letter is used to provide students with a number of questions. They are asked to identify if their time is within, above or in need of improvement when compared to the FITNESSGRAM criterion for the “Healthy Fitness Zone.”

A few other questions on the worksheet include the following:

  • How do you feel about your score?
  • Did you do your best, or did you talk to friends, explain your answer?
  • What can you do to either maintain or improve your score?
  • Why is cardiovascular fitness important?

This assignment has proven to be quite effective. It gets student to meet the content standard in relation to cardiovascular fitness since they compare their time to a standard for good health. In addition, I’ve found their answers are usually pretty thoughtful. Like the Body Mass Index assignment, it incorporates technology by forcing the students to use the Internet. It is my hope that the students gain an appreciation for using the Internet as a source of information for health and fitness. Occasionally students try to tell me they do not have access to the Internet at home. I tell them they can use the school library as a source for the Internet. I explain that if they were assigned a report on Abraham Lincoln, they would probably find their way to the library since they are not likely to have enough books on the subject at home. Consequently, using the library as a resource for the Internet, is not an unreasonable expectation.

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Google Gadgets & BMI

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

By John Kruse

Sixth grade standard 3.1:

Compare individual physical fitness results with research-based standards for good health.

The above content standard is the challenge for California physical educators.  This content standard really asks much from the student.  After all,  fitness results can encompass all five components of fitness.  The focus of this article is to give you some tips and ideas for helping students assess their own body composition using body mass index (BMI) with a little help from technology.

I’ve recently discovered Google Gadgets.  Gadgets are little programs that Google has published for people to place in their own web pages.  Examples include, clocks , weather reports, virtual fish aquariums and maps.  These nifty little programs are free and can really spice up a web page for someone with little or no programming skills.  For physical educators, Google has posted a number of Body Mass Index calculators.

I’ve decided to put one these BMI calculators to good use and placed one on my school’s web page.  Hopefully, your school has a web-page service that you can use and program easily. Here is what it looks like:

To program this, all you have to do is cut and paste the HTML code from the Google Gadget into your web-page. Simply click on the button that says “get the code.” I suggest you seek out the help of your instructional technology expert on campus if you need some help with this.

Now to help students with this standard, I spend a day measuring my students’ height and weight while they work in cooperative groups on a written assignment. Later, students are provided their height and weight that I have created using a form letter. I keep all of their data in a spreadsheet where I have entered formulas that will automatically calculate the body mass index and also tell me where they are in relation to the FITNESSGRAM “Healthy Fitness Zone.” This spreadsheet makes it easy for me to grade the assignment. Also, the spreadsheet makes it easy to print out a form letter with a personalized assignment (height & weight) for each student. The rest of the form letter instructs students on where to find my web-page and where they can find the calculator. In addition, there are a few questions that prompt students to compare their results for their BMI with the criterion “Healthy Fitness Zones” based on age and gender. This is how I get the student to “compare their BMI fitness score with research-based standards for good health.”

Below the calculator, I have written instructions for getting through the assignment and I have also provided tables that include the “Healthy Fitness Zone” criteria. It is important to have students ignore the “Underweight, Normal, Overweight and Obese” categories on the calculator, as I believe these are really for adults. Instead, direct them to the tables created by FITNESSGRAM.

In the past, I used to have students calculate BMI by hand. This was really frustrating since I found that my students were lacking the most basic math skills. I work in a lower socio-economic neighborhood and many of the students score below basic or far below basic on standardized tests. I only wish I had time to teach them the math. Unfortunately, with 60 or more students in each of my classes and with all of the other physical education content I’m expected to teach, this just isn’t feasible. Instead, I’ve decided to direct students to this handy BMI calculator so they can appreciate the fact that often times the Internet can offer useful information concerning health and fitness.

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The Tortoise and the Hare (Lesson on Pacing)

Thursday, January 29th, 2009

By Matthew Bassett

Teaching students the importance of pacing is like pulling teeth.  I’ve tried my best to talk about how students should pace themselves when running.   I go into how hard they should be pushing themselves on certain landmarks of the course.  Many times, this is to no avail.  I see student after student run the first lap as fast as possible and then have to walk large chunks of time (if not the rest of the time).  Its almost funny to watch them speed up when they get close to where I’m standing on the course only to return to a walk as soon they pass me and they think I’m not looking.

To solve this problem, I’ve started to use the story of the Tortoise and the Hare to explain this important concept.  After all, if I can’t solve this problem, I might have to take an early retirement or spend a small fortune on antacids.

I discuss the story of the Hare who starts out too fast at the beginning of the race and takes a lot of breaks because he thinks he can win.  I then tell them about the Tortoise who tactfully uses a slow and steady pace and does not run as fast as he can.  In the end, it is the Tortoise who wins the race.  Slow, steady and controlled always wins.

I then talk to my students about using this strategy in their running.  I ask them to go out slow and keep it at a steady pace.  I set a challenge before them to keep the same pace for the entire run.  I start by having them complete a lap at a shorter distance and build them up to a longer distance. The goal is to be able to build the students up (principle of progression) to a full mile or longer.

After the students finish running I ask each student “Did you run like a Tortoise?”  They have to tell me “I ran like a Tortoise” or “I ran like a Hare.”  If they they ran like a Tortoise I ask them, “Did you keep the same pace the whole time?” This allows me to double check that they understand the concept.  Over the next few days in class I reiterate my desire for students to run like a Tortoise.

This has helped my students tremendously.  The story of the Tortoise and the Hare creates a rich context that students can easily remember and relate to.   Best of all, I’ve managed to keep my hair and avoid the antacids.

Editor’s Note:  Pacing is an important concept for students.  As a teacher myself, I have experienced the same frustrations with teaching this difficult concept.  If we can get students to improve their pacing, we are giving them  tools to be more successful at the mile run/walk, a cardiovascular fitness metric that is commonly used in the FITNESSGRAM assessment.

It is also important to realize that pacing does always mean constant rate.  Older students can be taught this additional concept.  For an event such as the mile run, students need to be cautioned not to go out too fast.  The first lap should feel too slow.  The middle two laps should be on pace and the last lap should be the fastest.   Keep in mind that the students can recover from the effort after passing the finish line.  There is no need to keep anything in reserve at this point.

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