Archive for the ‘Kids’ Category

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Thursday’s PE Drill Thrill: SandBell partner games continued

October 27th, 2011
,,,,,,,,,,,,,, - Children's fitness - HyperWear - Kids - P.E. - Physical Education - Thursday's PE Drill Thrill - schools

Good morning! This week’s edition of Thursday’s PE Drill Thrills will be a continuation of SandBell partner games, posted on Oct. 13. The two games provided today will workout the abdominal muscles and challenge partners to complete a task together.

Drill Thrill #1: Heave Ho

  1. Divide students into pairs and give one SandBell per pair.
  2. Direct partners to lie in the sit-up position, with their toes barely touching each other.
  3. One partner begins by hugging the SandBell across their chest.
  4. Both partners simultaneously do a sit-up, and once they meet at the top the partner with the SandBell hands it over to the other partner who holds it as they lie back down.
  5. Repeat the sit-ups with alternating SandBell hand-off. Challenge students to see how many sit-ups they can complete in 30 seconds.

Drill Thrill #2: Hoist the Sails

  1. Divide students into pairs and give two SandBells per pair.
  2. Direct partners to sit facing one another, legs extended, with the SandBells at their feet.
  3. Working together, partners “hoist the sail,” i.e. balance one SandBell on their feet and then lift it as high as they can without dropping it.
  4. Challenge pairs to lift both SandBells when they become accomplished at lifting one.

Now go out and have your students give these games a try! Remember, you can always incorporate these games into a circuit or relay to switch things up and get everyone moving!

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Thursday’s PE Drill Thrill: SandBell partner games

October 13th, 2011
,,,,,,, - Children's fitness - HyperWear - Kids - P.E. - Physical Education - SandBell - Thursday's PE Drill Thrill

Welcome back to Thursday’s PE Drill Thrill! The past couple Drill Thrill blogs have focused on individual SandBell activities that can be done on their own, or combined to create a circuit. This week’s drills consist of partner exercises that focus on lower and upper body movement.

Drill Thrill #1: Ding Dong

  1. Arrange students into pairs, giving one SandBell per pair.
  2. One partner begins by standing on top of the SandBell, while the other partner stands on the floor.
  3. Partners clasp each other’s wrists.
  4. The student standing on the SandBell jumps backwards onto the floor, while their partner simultaneously jumps onto the SandBell.
  5. Challenge students to stay in rhythm jumping on and off the SandBell for as many “ding dongs” as possible, or see how many they can do in 30 or 60 seconds.

Drill Thrill #2: Pound It!

  1. Arrange students into pairs, giving one SandBell per pair and direct partners to face each other with three to four feet between them.
  2. One partner holds the SandBell at chest height with arms extended, gripping the colored rim so that the logo is facing the floor.
  3. The partner without the SandBell stands with their arms outstretched at chest height and hands balled in fists.
  4. At the sound of the whistle, the student begins pounding the bottom of the SandBell in an up and down alternating-arm motion.
  5. The student pounds the SandBell as fast as they can for 30 seconds, and then switches roles with their partner.

*Variation: Students can stand stationary while pounding the SandBell, or the partner holding the SandBell can slowly move the SandBell up and down or side to side. The other partner must then move and follow the SandBell and continue to pound it as they are guided around.

Challenge students to complete these drills as fast as they can to amp up the complexity! Now go put these drills into action and check back in a couple weeks to uncover even more great partner drills!

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Thursday’s PE Drill Thrill: Fast-moving feet

September 29th, 2011
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, - Children's fitness - HyperWear - Kids - P.E. - SandBell - Thursday's PE Drill Thrill - circuit training

Moving right along from our last PE Drill Thrill blog, this week’s drills are going to focus on individual activities that concentrate on a single, basic movement. Don’t get us wrong, the movements may be basic, but they’re definitely not short on fun, exciting and challenging!

Drill Thrill #1: Scissors

  1. Give each student a SandBell.
  2. Instruct students to start in a forward straddle position, with one foot in front and one foot in back.
  3. Students begin by placing one foot on top of the SandBell, and when a whistle is blown they jump and scissor their feet back and forth to alternate landing each foot on top of the SandBell.
  4. Challenge to see how many “scissors” students can do in 30 or 60 seconds.

*Variation: If there are not enough SandBells for each student to have their own, arrange students in groups and they can take turns executing the exercise and then compare their numbers with one another.

Drill Thrill #2: Straddle On

  1. Give each student a SandBell.
  2. Instruct students to start in a straddle position, placing the SandBell on the floor between their feet.
  3. Begin exercise by squatting and jumping to land with both feet on the SandBell and then jumping back out to the straddle position.
  4. Challenge to see how many “straddle ons” students can do in 30 and 60 seconds.

Drill Thrill #3: Slalom

  1. Give each student a SandBell.
  2. Instruct students to stand with both feet on the SandBell, then jump to one side of the SandBell and then immediately back on top of it.
  3. Jump to the opposite side of the SandBell and then back on top again.
  4. Repeat alternating side and center jumps for 30 seconds.

These short, quick drills are great exercises to add to relays, circuits or game challenges. You can also combine today’s drills to make a feet-focused challenge circuit that’s sure to get everyone’s heart pumping and faces laughing. So, go on out and give these drills a try!

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Thursday’s PE Drill Thrill: SandBell SLAM Edition

September 15th, 2011
,,,,,, - Children's fitness - HyperWear - Kids - P.E. - SandBell - Thursday's PE Drill Thrill

Happy Thursday morning! Only one more day until the weekend, which also means one more day for all you K-12 PE teachers to give one, or several, of our SandBell drills a try! The drills mentioned today all focus specifically on games that involve SLAMMING and smashing the SandBell onto the floor. So, lets get to it!

Thrill Drill #1: Bam Slam

  1. Student holds the SandBell with two hands, high above their head, arms fully extended.
  2. SLAM the SandBell down onto the floor.
  3. Challenge students to see how loud of a noise their slam can make, or how many slams they can do in 30 seconds.

Thrill Drill #2: Wood Chopper Slam

  1. Instruct students to stand in a straddle position, holding the SandBell with two hands.
  2. SLAM the SandBell from side to side.
  3. Challenge students to see how many slams they can do in 30 seconds, or place colored dot “targets” on each side of their feet and have them slam the SandBell onto each target.

Thrill Drill #3: Slam and Surf

  1. Bam slam each SandBell onto the floor.
  2. After the SandBell has landed, have the student jump onto the SandBell and try to balance when they land.
  3. Challenge students to see if they can jump with one foot onto the SandBell and balance, or jump and turn before landing.

That’s it for this week’s Thrill Drill! Give these drills a try, come up with your own or have your students get inventive with their own drills. As always, we’d love to hear your feedback so let us know what you or your students think!!

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How kids can beat the battle of the bulge

July 28th, 2011
,,,,,,,, - Hyper Vest PRO - HyperWear - Kids - Physical Education - SandBell - SteelBell - childhood obesity - obesity - weight loss

As we know, the waistband of the average American adult is expanding at a sickening rate, so much so that about one-third of all adults are now classified as obese. Something possibly less well known is the fact that over the past 30 years the number of obese children has nearly tripled, according to data and statistics from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

But, don’t let all those heavy statistics weigh you down just yet.

An online article from WeAreAustin.com, “To fight obesity, even babies should exercise,” the British government reveals that children under five should exercise everyday in order to form habits conducive to a healthy adult lifestyle. This doesn’t mean that we’re promoting baby boot camps, but forming healthy habits at a young age can only bring about good things!

The article goes on to say that walking children under five should be active for at least three hours a day, and infants not able to walk should be encouraged to play on their stomachs or swim with their parents. The British government hopes that by motivating children to be active, their chances of becoming obese in adulthood will be reduced.

How can Hyper Wear aid this obesity epidemic you may ask? Well in case you didn’t know, the Hyper Vest PRO is available in small, extra small and extra, extra small, just so children can use them too! The Vest, as well as the SandBells and SteelBells, are completely safe, totally fun and 100 percent kid-approved! Instilling healthy habits in your children is one of the best things you can do for them. Encourage play time, exercise and getting off the couch, your kids will not only be healthy, but also fit and happy with you!

To see what parents and teachers have to say about kids using Hyper Wear products click the link, and be sure to watch the videos at the bottom of the page. You can also view the Facebook album from our presentation at Great Oaks Elementary Wellness Day to get a first-hand look at just how excited playing (err, working out) with the SandBells can be!

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Great Oaks Elementary Wellness Day ~ SandBells, SandBells Everywhere!

May 12th, 2011
,,,,,,, - Kids - P.E. - Physical Education - SandBell - Thankful Thursday - fitness - obesity - sandbag - schools

We got invited to a nearby Elementary School to take part in their Wellness Day last Friday, May 6th.  We are always honored to be part of the efforts of schools to educate their kids about living a healthy life!

Great Oaks Elementary in Round Rock, TX, did such an excellent job of organizing their wonderful Wellness Day!  We welcomed seven classes of about 20-25 fifth graders to the gym for blocks of 20 minutes.  We played two highly intense and highly fun race-against-the-clock games that the kids absolutely LOVED!

Who would have thought exercising could be so fun?  But shhh…don’t tell the kids they were exercising – they just thought they were playing!

These kids use the SandBells in their Physical Education classes, but had never gotten to use a 50-pounder.  They entered the gym with wide-eyed wonder to see such a large SandBell in the middle of the room!  One of the games required the teams of 5 or 6 kids to work together to get their 50-pounder from the center of the gym to their team’s corner.  It’s amazing to watch how much fun they have lifting something heavy!

So, thank you again, Great Oaks, for the great day!  Keep doing what you are doing to fight the battle against childhood obesity – we’re proud to be on the front lines with you!

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AAHPERD – Friday Fragments

April 1st, 2011
,,,,,, - AAHPERD - Denver Fredenburg - HyperWear - Kids - P.E. - Physical Education - childhood obesity - schools

Friday Fragments are random thoughts and special notes from the previous week.  It could be just about anything that Hyper Wear and / or the staff participated in that we thought blog-worthy.  Enjoy and Stay Hyper!

Dirk and Denver made a trip to San Diego, CA, Wednesday and Thursday to walk the floor at AAHPERD’s annual conference (AAHPERD is American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance).  These are the fine folks who are working so hard to keep our school-aged children physically active and fit.  That is no easy task, especially when history has shown that when budgets in schools get cut, Physical Education (or P.E.) usually suffers, which means the health of our children suffers.  These guys are committed to their mission, which is to promote and support leadership, research, education, and best practices in the professions that support creative, healthy, and active lifestyles.

We believe very strongly in what this organization promotes and just wanted to make you aware that they are out there.  We participate in as many of the Texas AHPERD functions as we can and are always blown away by the level of commitment shown by many of the P.E. Teachers we encounter.

So those are my thoughts for this Friday!  Have a great weekend!

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Thankful Thursday : Westside Elementary’s Wellness Night

March 31st, 2011
,,,,, - Kids - SandBell - WaterBell - fitness - wellness

Here at Hyper Wear, we encounter so many amazing people every day!  We are presented with many, many truly awesome opportunities to share our products with an enormous range of people.  We love to hear feedback and love to see people enjoy fitness because of our products.  That’s what Thankful Thursdays are all about – us saying, “Thank You!” to a specific customer, group, publication, etc. that has helped us along the road to success.

Today, we are extending a note of thanks to Westside Elementary in the Leander Independent School District in Cedar Park, TX.  Thursday, March 24th, they hosted a Wellness Night for their students and their parents.  We were invited to be a part of this fun evening of learning about all aspects of wellness.  Hyper Wear set up an obstacle course and ran parents and kiddos through several stations at which they performed various activities with SandBells and WaterBells.  It was a blast!  The kids loved the bells and wanted to do the course again and again!  We were happy to oblige them and reminded their parents of the great workout they were getting while having fun!  Check it out:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EocyNJs71VQ[/youtube]

In addition, we want to extend a big THANK YOU to Stefanie Ediger for all of her hard work to coordinate such a wonderful event!

Next time there is a Wellness Night in your community, take your family and go see what the businesses around you have to offer.  It’s always good to support the folks who are with you in the fight for wellness!

What are you thankful for today?

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Hyper Wear SandBells – A Weapon in the War Against Childhood Obesity

September 10th, 2010
,, - Kids - SandBell - childhood obesity - sandbag

Here at Hyper Wear, we have a big heart for kids.  One of our driving passions is to be a key fighter in the war against childhood obesity.  The statistics are devastating as the percentages of obese children and adults continue to climb.  Wikipedia says that 15-25 percent of American children and adolescents are now obese.  That means as many as one in four children and teens are obese.

I don’t know about you, but when I was a kid, we had P.E. (physical education) class every day.  We learned basic sport skills, jumped rope, played various forms of tag and the like.  Although I always hated the days we played dodgeball, I now see it as part of the bigger picture of making us physically active for a portion of our day, every day.  Given my experience with daily P.E., I was personally shocked to learn that P.E. had been taken out of public schools over the last few years.  We are just beginning to see it be reintroduced in pockets of the country.

Anyway, Hyper Wear has been fortunate for the last two summers to be invited to a summit for Texas P.E. Administrators.  We were at the summit to present our SandBells to the administrators after a gracious invitation by Michele Rusnak, who has worked tirelessly to build some amazing P.E. programs in the Austin Independent School District.  These administrators are walking the talk!  Every day, we had an optional SandBell workout and a number of them came out and “played” with us!  They saw how effortlessly SandBells made workouts more fun!

We are humbled by this important work and monumental task we are faced with.  We are grateful for so many fellow soldiers in this battle.  And we are encouraged by the simple fact that the problem of childhood obesity is at least on the radar of a lot of folks.  Spread the word!

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SandBell Physical Education Series: Through the Hoop – MMM #53

May 3rd, 2010
,,,,,,, - Bill Meyer - Hyper Vest PRO - Kids - Monday Morning Muscle - P.E. - Physical Education - SandBell - sandbag - weight vest

Good Monday Morning!!

Today’s “Muscle” takes us down to Highland Park Elementary of Austin ISD to visit a good friend of mine, Jim DeLine.  Jim is a Physical Educator from whom all of us could learn a few things!

Neat story here… one of Jim’s students, Jonas Tatu, has been so intrigued by training with SandBells at his school that he wrote me a letter.  I responded with an invitation for him to be in a few MMM videos with me.  He was ecstatic!

This week’s video has myself, Jonas, and one of his classmates, Whitney, performing a fun activity with one hula hoop and a 4 lb Sandbell. So enjoy our Physical Education video for this week with up and coming workout video star, Jonas Tatu!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7Wobcf2gWI[/youtube]

Never Stand Still!

Bill Meyer, SCE, USAW
Head Hyper Wear Coach
Performance Director, CATZ-Austin

MMM #53

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