Physical well-being affects every aspect of a student’s life, including their mental health, academic prowess, self esteem, social competency, and ability to function in any environment. Physical fitness and health are crucial, yet often neglected, elements in secondary education. The number of sedentary children and adolescents in the U.S. continues to increase at an alarming rate. These inactive students are turning into inactive, unhealthy adults—at high risk for heart disease and cancer, two of the leading causes of death in the U.S. Obesity from lack of physical activity and poor lifestyle choices has become a national epidemic with devastating physical, emotional, economic, and social consequences.

A Need For Change

Physical education in the public school setting has often emphasized traditional games, sports, and competition. This setting prioritizes the handful of kinesthetically-talented students who succeed in group sports. By their very nature, traditional physical education programs tend to exclude the significant number of students who prefer individual fitness activities.

According to the Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity,

• Nearly half of American youths aged 12-21 years are not vigorously active on a regular basis.
• Approximately 14% of young people report no recent physical activity.
• Participation in all types of physical activity declines strikingly as age or grade in school increases.
• Only 19% of all high school students are physically active for 20 minutes or more, five days a week, in physical education classes.

These statistics alone demonstrate a need for change--including a redefinition of secondary fitness instruction. Most national health and physical education organizations are now pushing for this change in our physical education programs. While many brick & mortar schools are now starting to offer more personalized fitness programs, there are many benefits of online physical education that truly make physical education a personalized experience for each student.

Benefits of Online Physical Education and The Personal Fitness Suite™

The Personal Fitness Suite™ is a fresh approach to physical education with numerous benefits. It is not just a virtual workout!

Benefits include:

• Students work out in a real world environment, which will better enable them to continue with their fitness plan after they have finished the course.
• Rather than just learning rules of a game, students learn the fitness principles and practice applying them in their own lives.
• Students perform in a non-competitive setting where they are not compared (or are not comparing themselves) to the performance of others.
• Courses meet student interests.  They can do activities they enjoy doing—dancing, surfing, inline skating, yoga, boxing. running, walking, etc.
• By doing something they enjoy students are more motivated to begin and more likely to stick with a fitness program over time!
• Students receive personalized feedback from the instructor.
• Everything is tailored to the individual! Students assess their fitness level, set their own goals, and create a personal plan to meet those goals. 
• Students work at their own fitness level. There is no pressure to “keep up” with the rest of the class.
• Students can "attend" class or perform exercise whenever or wherever works best for them.

Putting health and physical education courses online changes our paradigm and allows us to shift our focus to the needs and interests of the individual. This promotes lifestyle changes and fitness habits that they can carry into adulthood. In The Personal Fitness Suite™, students learn the information they need to become empowered teenagers and adults, receive timely and personable motivation and tips, and maintain accountability, thus allowing them to develop a lifelong commitment to physical activity and healthy living.