Sports programs, like basketball, volleyball or football, even wall climbing, taekwondo or karate can be developed within the school. Also dance and exercise programs can be facilitated by the school to enhance physical activities that will promote loosing and maintaining weight. Dance can include ballroom dance, even hip hop and modern dances to enhance interest can also be facilitated. Incentives can also be given to students who participate so that they might be more inclined to participate in such activities.
Other outdoor activities like running, tag and such can also be fostered especially to the younger years. The school can also promote fun runs, cycle rides and such that will enable the young ones in participating in activities that promote physical movement and exertion while enjoying themselves and enhancing socialization. More intense physical sessions like aerobic exercises, even pilates or taebo can be made of use to the more obese patients that will enable them to engage in physical activities while enjoying the session.
Although it is clear that physical activity has advantageous effects on health, the optimal intensities, volumes and modalities are unclear, especially in children, for example in adults, some research will recommend low intensity high repetition exercises may be more advantageous in losing weight, while others will recommend that low repetition high intensity exercises may be of more value with regards to its effects on body composition.
There is practically no information on children regarding the different effects of low and high intensity and rate of repetition of activity for improving body composition and health risk. It seems probable that healthy children may benefit from an even greater volume of regular exercise than adults; the National Association of Sports and Physical education (1998) recommends that more than one hour to several hours a day of exercise.
Children may also benefit from training for skill development, since possession of essential skills is needed to encourage self-efficacy, one of the most important predictor of future free living physical activity. However, there are few guidelines, that is more specified for children, especially the younger children, to engage in what might be a rigorous training. The recommendations that do exist are variable, suggesting from 20 ± 30 min of at least moderate intensity exercise for at least three days a week.
A 1996 report from the Surgeon General on `Physical Activity and Health’, sponsored by the US Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for disease Control and Prevention, the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, and the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, recommends that everyone over the age of two years old should be involved in endurance type physical activity with moderate intensity 7 days a week for a minimum of thirty minutes a day.
The `Healthy People 2000′ goals also included children in their recommendations, campaigning that thirty percent of the population within the six years old bracket be tasked to perform light to moderate physical activity for a period of thirty minutes every day, and 75 percent of children aged six to seventeen years of age, engage in vigorous physical activity in excess of twenty minutes at least thrice a week.
Moreover, specific goals aimed for children have been suggested, specifically stating that at the very least 50 percent of school children should participate in daily physical education in school, devoting 50 percent of class time to being physically active. It can be of note that with regards to physical activity programs that are done after school, the above noted should be considered in doing the activities that is beneficial to children after school should be patterned accordingly so that successful outcomes maybe reached.
Cook Outs Children/students can be taught cooking habits that will foster healthy eating like the use of more healthy alternatives like healthy cooking oil for example, and development of healthy substitutes for greasy foods like burgers and fries. A good example would be a veggie burger or burger extensions that are vegetable based but can be delicious for the palate and instead of greasy fries, carrot sticks or cucumber sticks and there can be a cook fest or cook out on who will make the healthiest and most delicious meals