HealthWatch:Adventures to Fitness

HealthWatch (WFRV) -- Adventures to Fitness: Keeping School Kids Active

Nine million American students are packing on too many pounds, but just as kids are being told to exercise more, they're finding fewer opportunities to break a sweat during the school day. Teachers have found a free program to help move the scales in the right direction.

The physical education classes of then--- are disappearing now.

"Unfortunately with budget cuts, hum, our P.E. instruction time has been cut," said Tiffany McGinley, Kindergarten/First Grade Teacher.

Only six states require the recommended 150 minutes of elementary P.E. a week and just three states have 20 minutes of mandatory recess a day.

At this school for autistic children, there's one P.E. teacher for all 160 students. This is helping the kids stay active.

Adventure to Fitness is a free interactive workout for kids.

It exercises students' bodies and minds.

Adventures that get the kids running, hopping, squatting, and leaping for 30 minutes straight. Mister Marc leads adventures for 60-thousand teachers in 11-thousand schools.

"We're never telling our adventurers, is what we call them,  to do a jumping jack, but there is always a reason behind why you might do jumping jacks in one of the episodes, it's because you're cold and your down in a cavern so you need to do jumping jacks in order to get warm," said Marc Loyd "aka" Mr. Marc, Adventure Leader for Adventure to Fitness.

Luis Hernandez is the lone gym teacher for 800 kids.  He says, the program is making a difference.

"The kids are more active, they're more, hum, willing to exercise and do things they wouldn't try before," Luis Hernandez, P.E. Teacher, told Ivanhoe.

"It gives me good exercise," Valeria Hernandez, 1^st Grader, told Ivanhoe.

And there's only one rule...

"We never stop moving," explained the kids.

Besides losing gym classes, kids are giving up on sports and playing outside. According to the C.D.C, more than 60-percent of kids, ages nine to 13, do not participate in sports. And worse yet, 23-percent don't engage in any free time physical activity at all. Adventure to Fitness has a home version to get kids moving at night, on the weekends, and over the summer. It's 30 dollars for three 30 minute episodes. You can find out more at adventure to fitness-dot-com.