Foundation Fridays in the Uppers
If you’ve talked with an upper this year, they may have mentioned something about Foundation Fridays. This weekly PE class is a space for students to expand their understanding of their physical strength and learn some new ways to move their bodies. It is an addition to our usual Uppers curriculum which centers around seasonal sports, like soccer and basketball, and offers a time for students to really push themselves individually as an athlete. Every Friday we spend 45 minutes strength training as a whole Uppers group, starting with a warm-up and then rotating through a circuit of specific movements.
Strength training is generally defined as any physical movement in which you use your body weight or equipment (such as dumbbells or resistance bands) to build muscle mass, strength, and endurance. Strength training has proven to have a multitude of benefits both physically and mentally in both adolescents and adults, one of the best being the positive impact that strength building can have on our mental health. As a program full of middle schoolers, we know our kids are going through many physical, mental, and social changes and feeling strong and powerful in your body can be a really positive way to support those changes.
Students in the woods primes are encouraged to move their bodies by climbing trees and jumping over logs. They are learning body awareness, control, and balance through play. These types of movements are foundational to strength and endurance training. Therefore, the logical move would be to continue to encourage activities that promote core stability and endurance as our students get older. This supports students who will go on to play sports in the future, but it is also designed to help build confidence in all students regardless of their athletic pursuits. In fact, having a strong core has been proven to be beneficial in the classroom as well as on the athletic field. A strong core allows the brain to focus more on the task at hand, rather than maintaining balance and stability.
So far during our Foundation classes, students have done lower body workouts which included body weight squats, lunges, and ladder drills. We’ve also done upper body workouts using light weights for bicep curls and overhead presses. One of the most fun pieces of equipment we used has been a sled, some of us pulling our classmates along with a 25lb weight! Students were also able to try out a circus dumbbell, a very specific piece of equipment used in the sport of strongman. In one of the photos below, you can see an Upper trying to press this hollow, yet hefty, piece of equipment above their head. In all these exercises our goal is not just to do the motion, but to use that motion to build confidence and feel empowered. It is not about competing with each other or being on opposite teams, but rather seeing how far we can push ourselves and how strong we can feel.
