Sep
24
A School PYOW Success Story
Filed Under Educators Fitness Info
A ‘Fitness Success Story In A Public School System
PULL YOUR OWN WEIGHT
by Rick Osbourne, M.S.
According to the most recent report from the President’s Council on Physical Fitness: “There is poor performance by large numbers of boys and girls on tests of arm and shoulder strength and endurance. Many have insufficient strength to handle their own body weight in case of emergency and are often unable to carry on daily work or recreational activities successfully and safely.”More specifically, “64 percent of today’s children aged 6 to 17 fail to meet the Council’s standards of a healthy youngster: 35 percent have at least two heart-disease risk factors and 42 percent have high levels of cholesterol.”In the midst of couch potatoes and junk food junkies; in an era when at least 1/3 of our student population is physically in trouble and funds for physical education are being reduced on a regular basis across the country, I would like to spotlight one fitness success story in our nation’s public schools that deserves our close attention.
For the past two years, Bob Ascher, supervisor of physical education for the Public Schools of Newport News, VA and former president of the Virginia AAHPERD, has conducted a citywide pull up contest.
The results you ask? The first year it produced in excess of 500 kids who progressed from being unable to do any pull ups to being able to do at least one pull up. The second year produced in excess of 800 kids who achieved the same distinction. In other words, more than 1,300 kids in 2 years made the transition from being unable to do any pull ups to being able to do at least one pull up.
That is, 1,300 kids can now literally PULL THEIR OWN WEIGHT in a way that they could not before. The third year’s results will be reported in the spring of ‘89, but it does look promising!
The most interesting aspect of all this to me is the fact that Ascher’s pull up contest attacks simultaneously 2 of the most fundamental problems of our functionally unfit students. Obviously upper torso strength is directly affected and encouraged by the contest. But equally affected by the contest is the problem of student obesity.
The pull up, by virtue of using the student’s own body weight as its major resistance factor, takes into account not only his strength, but also his body weight at the same time. The student in this contest can only progress if he loses fat, or if he increases his upper torso pulling muscle mass (strength) in greater proportion than his overall body weight. That is to say a student must improve his body composition if he expects to make significant progress in pull ups (or dips, or hand stand push ups, etc) (1)
How did all this occur? Well, Ascher, in conjunction with a retired football coach and physical education teacher from Cleveland named Chet Rojeck, conceived the idea. Ascher had a group of kids who could not physically pull their own weight. Rojeck had designed a simple machine (later to be called the Pull Up Trainer) that would allow anyone to do pull ups immediately, in repetition, without pain, strain or injury. In short Ascher had the problem and Rojeck had the means to resolve the problem.
The contest was conceived as a voluntary program (to date, only about half of the schools in the NNPSS have participated which makes the numbers even more impressive). The logistics of the contest are basically a simple data gathering process since pull ups are being tested at all the public schools already.
There is a boys’ winner and a girls’ winner for each age level. Ties are decided by weight (the heaviest is the winner).
The contest is well publicized before and after in the local media. Rewards for achievement are given out and the results of the contest are published in the local newspapers.
Rojeck, whom I have met since hearing of Ascher’s success story in Newport News, is a veritable Don Quixote of fitness in this country. Quixote, as most will remember from the Cervantes tale, was the elderly yet inexhaustible representative of truth who travels the length and breadth of Spain on horseback trying to right the unrightable wrongs of the world.
Similarly, Rojeck is a white haired gentleman who is past retirement age. And like Quixote, he travels the entire USA (but in a van, not on horseback) without complaint delivering his unique and practical form of the truth to whomever will take the time to listen.
Ascher listened and put Rojeck’s idea to work and presently has a public school fitness program that could serve as the Quixotian ideal for the rest of the schools in the country to follow. I would like to take this opportunity to publicly salute Bob Ascher and the public schools of Newport News, VA (and Rojeck, too) for recognizing the problem and for being bold enough to stand up and do something about it. Such understanding and appropriate action are qualities that we need to see a lot more of in today’s world.
For more details on Ascher’s Pull Up contest, I suggest you write directly to: Robert C. Ascher, Supervisor Health and Physical Education, Newport News Public Schools, 12465 Warwick Blvd., Box 6130, Newport News, VA 23606-0130.
(1) Basically exercise that uses the body weight as its primary resistance factor (somatatrophic exercise) shares in this unique and ultimately practical characteristic. By the same token, exercises in which extrinsic weight is the primary resistance factor takes only raw strength into account and therefore cannot make this claim.
(Rick Osbourne is a fitness consultant in the Chicago area and is available for workshops and other speaking engagements. He can be reached at 630-495-3445.)
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