By Terry Foster, 4-H Extension Agent
Red River 4-H members have actively engaged in and gained MASTRY and knowledge of the focus on healthy living-physical health & fitness. “Up to the Challenge” encouraged youth to strive for overall health and well-being, including physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity thru a series of monthly lessons at 4-H club meetings.
Flexibility is Fabulous was to learn about stretching for overall fitness and health and to learn about Yoga activities. Get in the Movement Groove to explore benefits of exercise, identify why exercise/physical activity is important, share activities with friends/families, understand the 3 types of physical activity, learn about warm-up/cool-down, cooperative physical activity.
In the Beat- The Heartbeat we learned to understand the difference between aerobic and non-aerobic activities, calculate heart rate before, during, & after exercise, participate in warm-up/aerobic/cool-down activities.
Muscle Mania– Move It or Lose It we learned to understand the relationship between strong bones, muscles and exercise, warm-up activity, strengthening activity, cool down activity.
Do You See What I See? We recognize people come in all shapes & sizes, understand people of different weights & sizes can be healthy, learn people can be too thin or too heavy for good health, culture and family can be an important determinant for size, understand that images we see in magazines, movies and TV are not always healthy.
The Truth about Vitamins, Steroids & Supplements we learned that muscles are best developed by exercise & good nutrition, understand that we get all vitamins and minerals needed from a healthy diet. I learned in this lesson that steroids are readily available in the Coushatta area. At least 10 youth raised their hand that they knew someone who sold steroids or could get them. My original goal was to focus on YOGA movements only.
Fun Day is our way of celebrating what we learned in our monthly meetings.
