Physical Fitness Class
by Holly Atlakson
February 01, 2010
A fairly small room filled with many different weight machines and dumbbells can be found in Hiawatha High School. This room is called the “weight room”. Whether it’s during the summer, or in-between classes, students always find time to make themselves a better athlete, or just to stay in shape. The difference between Physical Fitness class and Physical Education class is that you are working out differently. In Physical Education you are running, jumping, and playing. As for Physical Fitness, you are strengthening your muscles and making yourself stronger. The key points of Physical Fitness class at HHS are cardiovascular fitness, flexibility training, strength training, muscular endurance, body composition, and general skill training.
Many students like Jordan Marable use Physical Fitness as a boost to their athletic ability. “Lifting weights helps me become faster and stronger so I can keep up with the competition,” Marable said.
The class, taught by instructor Amy Bearce, meets every other day during third period. Each student has a packet to fill out as they are lifting and doing exercises. One day will be bench press and decline and the next day will be push press and incline. Each day, the class will work on a specific area of muscles, whether it be arms, legs, or a little of both.
After the core exercises, the class has a list of auxiliary lifts. Auxiliary lifts are more of a relaxed form of weight exercise that still works on the same area of muscle that they were assigned that day.
Jackie Coelho, a fairly new student to Physical Fitness, seems to enjoy the class. “I like having Physical Fitness every other day, so I can have time to relax and have more energy to be able to become stronger,” Coelho said.
