Mirror photo by Gary M. Baranec / Altoona Area High School students participate in a spinning class last week. This year, Altoona Area High School transformed its physical education program. Fitbits enable students to work at their target heart rate instead of measuring their success against others.

Mirror photo by Gary M. Baranec / Altoona Area High School students participate in a spinning class last week. This year, Altoona Area High School
transformed its physical education program. Fitbits enable students to work at their target heart rate instead of measuring their success against others.

Workout music blared as 30 Altoona Area High School students pedaled on stationary bikes, keeping an eye on their Fitbits for their target heart rate.

“It’s not gym class anymore,” physical education teacher Tom Palfey said.

The change from team sports-oriented physical education to lifelong activities appears ubiquitous. Altoona Area faculty gleaned inspiration for its new program from a statewide conference last year.

“Phys ed shouldn’t be team sport-oriented,” Palfey said.

He cited data that came from a research project presented at the conference.

“Only 3 percent of people will go on to play a team sport after high school, but 87 percent of students will go on to participate in lifetime activities if taught why it’s important,” he said.

This year, Altoona Area High School transformed its physical education program. Fitbits enable students to work at their target heart rate instead of measuring their success against others.

And Palfey said physical education has a newfound focus on forming students’ fitness habits after graduation.

“You talk about making kids college and career ready. This is it,” Palfey said. “They are life ready.”

The district’s private donor-funded foundation gave money for the purchase of four kayaks to be used in the pool. The popularity of Bosu equipment, plyo boxes, yoga, Zumba and dance and spinning are all offered for physical education credits.

With the childhood obesity rate at about 17 percent, a federal education law passed in December 2015 to replace No Child Left Behind elevates health and fitness to rank among subjects like art, music, civics and science as elements of a well-rounded education and makes additional funding available.

This year at Chestnut Ridge Middle School in Bedford County, wellness classes are on a rotation with electives including some science, technology, engineering and math classes and art, Superintendent Mark Kudlaweic said. In addition, the district developed a new wellness committee at the beginning of the school year with ideas for adding a walking club for students.

“Healthy habits, healthy lifestyles have been important,” Kudlaweic said.

Waiting until high school is almost too late, said Central Cambria physical education teacher Ted Rakar.

At the elementary school, the old “roll out the balls and say ‘kids, play'” approach to physical education is over, he said.

“It’s not just recess. It’s a class where we teach them why we do what we do to keep them healthy. And I try to make it seem enjoyable. I want them to feel success so they want to come back and do it again … through adulthood,” he said.

Childhood obesity is a true epidemic, Rakar said.

Obesity rates are higher in Blair County than the state and the nation, according to a UPMC Altoona report last year.

The report states 36 percent of Blair County residents are obese, which is higher than the state (30 percent) and the nation (29 percent).

Blair County residents are also less physically active, according to another study.

The percentage of adults age 20 and older in Blair County reporting no leisure-time physical activity is 27 percent, according to the county health rankings by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The state average is 23 percent, and the nationwide average is 22 percent.

“I think that one of our goals as a PE teacher is to get our students to enjoy activity so they continue in the future,” said Bellwood-Antis School District physical education teacher Nick Lovrich. “We still do some of the team-oriented sports, but we focus on having the students enjoy physical activity in class. We offer badminton, can jam, bocce and bowling to our classes as lifetime activities and alternative activities such as walking and yoga.”

Those types of activities are making gym class appealing to more students, teachers said. The kids who used to refuse to participate in Altoona Area’s gym class are dressed, Palfey said.

“We’ve seen excitement. Kids refusing to dress is not an issue anymore,” he said.

And that could have implications in the classroom, as well.

The brain-fitness connection was the subject of Harvard psychiatry professor John Ratey’s book “Spark,” which is about how even moderate exercise supercharges mental circuits to beat stress, sharpen thinking and enhance memory. Schools nationwide have noted Ratey’s work as they transform their physical education programs.

States nationwide are beginning to include physical education or fitness in their accountability plans for the U.S. Education Department. The more holistic view of school quality is a departure from the old law’s heavy reliance on test scores.

“Because of pressure of the test, physical education has been scaled back,” Palfey said.

But he foresees the integration of moderate to vigorous exercise will sharpen students’ minds.

“I believe you will find out our test scores will go up,” Palfey said.

The new activities and focus on accomplishing individual goals has also affected the gym class experience for special education students, Palfey said.

Altoona Area’s physical education for special education was audited this month.

“The auditor from the department was super impressed. She said we are at the top of the state with what we are doing with our kids,” Palfey said.

He said, for example, there are students with cerebral palsy who enjoy exercising with the district’s new rowing machines and competing against only themselves by watching their target heart rate.

The transformation of physical education happened in such a short period of time, Palfey said.

“We never dreamed it would take off like this,” he said. “But we are there.”

Mirror Staff Writer Russ O’Reilly is at 946-7435.