Aerobic Capacity Challenge (800 m Run)
Why is it important?
When you move quickly, your heart has to work really hard; the more you practice, the better your heart will perform and the healthier it will be. Think of it as lifting weights with your heart: as you do activities that improve your speed your heart gets stronger and can move blood more easily around your body. Being speedy also means that your legs can work hard and fast, and that they have a lot of power. Power helps to improve your speed, so when you next try the SportFit 30 Metre station, you’ll probably improve your score!
How can I improve?
Jumping jacks
Jumping jacks teach your muscles how to contract quickly and powerfully: two things that are needed to go fast. Also, when you do jumping jacks, your heart starts beating hard; since your heart is a muscle it needs to be trained to go fast, so doing jumping jacks teaches your heart how to work properly when you run fast or do any hard activity.
Tag
When you play Tag, you run really fast to get away from the person that is “It”. All of this running gets your legs moving quickly and your heart beating fast. If you play Tag every day at recess or lunch, your body gets used to working hard and when you try out the 30m sprint at your next SportFit day, your time will probably be quicker than before because your body has learned how to go fast.
Run upstairs to deliver a phone message
Running upstairs gets your legs working really hard and your heart beating very quickly. This is great for improving your speed! It takes a lot of strength and power to get upstairs, so if you start taking the stairs more often, your legs and heart will get stronger and this will help them work better when you run the SportFit 30m sprint challenge.
Capture the Flag
Capture the Flag is a fun way to practice running fast. To chase or escape from opponents, search for the flag, and free your team’s prisoners, you have to be quick and fast. The running, along with the added excitement and fear of being caught gets your heart beating fast. This teaches your heart how to act when it is under stress, which is when it has to go fast to get blood to your muscles that are working more quickly than normal.
Kick the Can
Kick the Can is a great game to play as a class; it is a combination of tag and hide and seek, in which the person who is “It” has to search for the other players. When a player is found, the “It” person calls out the name of the hider and the two people race back to the can, which is in the centre of the playing field. If the person who is “It” kicks the can first, then the hider must go to jail; but if the hider kicks the can first, then he or she is safe and the person who is “It” must start again and try to find other hiders. If there are players in jail when a hider kicks the can, these players are freed and allowed to find a new hiding place. Kick the Can will help you improve your SportFit 30 metre sprint challenge score because you have to run really fast to try and get to the can before the person who is “It”.
Downhill Skiing
When you go downhill skiing, your legs have to work hard to hold you in the right position, so they need more oxygen, which comes from the blood your heart pushes through your body. Between the excitement and the need for more oxygen in your legs, your heart can get going really fast while you’re skiing. After a day of skiing, your heart will be better able to pump quickly when you do other activities.
Coloured Eggs/Octopus/British Bull Dog/Red Rover
Octopus is a great way to improve your speed. During the game, you run a lot of short distances really fast, and you get a break between each run. When you run short distances quickly, your muscles have to work hard, and with each run they learn a little better how to make you go fast. Between each run, you get to rest for a few seconds, allowing your muscles to build up more energy for the next sprint.
