High schools often have a wide variety of exercise equipment available for students. That equipment can be team sports-related, individual sports-related or simply there to provide an individual workout for its users. Some equipment has been used by athletes for generations, while more modern equipment has also taken its place in the modern high school gym.
Strength Training
Many high schools have added huge weight rooms to their athletic facilities for physical education classes. At a time when phys ed has become an elective class for many school systems and fewer youngsters are taking classes, more students are realizing the benefits of weight training classes, according to University of Missouri exercise physiologist Stephen Ball. "In the past, PE teachers always emphasized aerobic programs that left bigger kids feeling like failures," Ball told the "Wall Street Journal." "But the weight room is where those kids will develop a love of physical activity."
Cardiovascular Training
Physical education students no longer have to depend on the indoor and outdoor running tracks that were once such a staple of gym class. Some schools offer indoor cycling classes similar to those found in private gyms. Instead of counting out jumping jacks or other calisthenics, student listen to music and pedal for 30 minutes at a time. Black Hills (Washington) High School teacher Greg Bert issues commands to his class on when they should increase and decrease resistance and take pulse measurements, according to "The Olympian."
Sports Facilities
The basketball court is often a staple of many high school athletic facilities. High schools also have volleyball, softball, soccer, baseball and tennis facilities. The football field may be the center of the high school's athletic and social hub. Many high schools will let their phys ed students use the fields that are primarily the domain of the athletic team.
Old-School Facilities
Several pieces of exercise equipment that have been used for many generations are still used by high school students. Those facilities include pull-up bars, climbing ropes, gymnastic or tumbling mats and sit-up racks. Exercises like push-ups, pull-ups and ab crunches are still quite viable when it comes to helping high school students get in better condition and many students enjoy doing those exercises.
Conditioning
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that childhood obesity tripled between 1978 and 2008. As a result of those figures, it is more important than ever to give high school students the opportunity to exercise and tone their bodies with exercises they want to participate in and will do with frequency.
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