PE Class & Bodyweight Foundation

I hope this powers up your overall abilities!

My PE Class format is:

1. PLAY, rotating through a wide variety of sports and games.

2. Learn just ONE exercise per day.

My job isn’t just to get kids fit, it’s to help them be able to make themselves fit for the rest of their lives. I prefer a slow but steady approach, giving more time to UNDERSTAND each exercise, and letting their SELF-DETERMINISM flourish.

If you set a good example with your own body, you’ll find those around you asking for more. I allow more, and compliment that! But there’s never an expectation to do more than one exercise per day!

The following 10 exercises produce an amazing bodyweight formation, and you don’t need any tools beyond stuff you can make versions of in woodshop class!

1 of 10: Slant squat, because it makes it simple to build a foundation for the quads and knees!

2 of 10: Ring pull-ups! Kids LOVE rings. By showing them how to push up with the legs, then fight down, they smoothly get stronger and may eventually do full pull-ups with ease!

3 and 4 of 10: Sometime between childhood and leaving school, it’s advantageous to get and keep full split squats to the front and sides. My main job has been helping people rebuild mobility later in life - and it can be done! - but if these skills were learned in school, it would save countless billions of dollars on later problems, while making better lives.

And each of these scales easily by elevating the working side!

5 of 10: Full push-up, progressing from knees, to knees up, no knees down, to no knees! Building through your natural range of motion is underrated for long-term shoulder health.

6 of 10: With a partner or even some wood in the wall, you can improve your ability to resist your knee being pried apart. It’s unfortunate that this has to be mentioned, but teen knee surgeries are extremely common and darken a lot of lives. We can’t prevent them all, but we darn sure should improve our abilities and reduce the chance of problems! Progress from closer to farther, resisting down at your pain-free level, and pushing back up.

7 of 10: Ring rows are perhaps my overall favorite upper body movement because of how smoothly scalable they are, and how hard you can safely work on your upper back, a modern weak point! Simply stand farther to make it easier. Young kids won’t understand this one, but smooth as butter to learn at some point before you leave school.

8 of 10: Don’t underestimate the effectiveness of leg swings or kicks - both front-back and side-to-side - for flexibility and strength around the hips!

9 of 10: The L-sit progresses so easily by straightening the legs, and it delivers a serious result for core strength!

10 of 10: A calf raise (with or without slant) progresses from two legs, to two-up-one-down, to one leg. I’ve never regretted having ability from the ground up, and I believe it’s an important part of a bodyweight foundation.

I hope this powers up your overall abilities to help yourself and those around you!

Yours in Solutions,

Ben

Form-coaching and full programs: atgonlinecoaching.com

Slant, rings, p-bars, and flexible, foot-shaped shoes in this article: atgequipment.com