Fitness Exchange: Project Mobilizes Students for Online Physical Activities Subtitle: Belo Horizonte, a teacher, encouraged students from Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, and Espirito Santo to exercise

"Stay at home", a phrase constantly used in the pandemic to avoid agglomerations, may be serving as a justification for those who have not yet made peace with physical activities or healthy balance.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 5 million people die each year due to a sedentary lifestyle. Also, according to the institution, only one out of five adolescents exercises.

This Tuesday, April 6, is celebrated as the World Day of Physical Activity. The teacher and physical educator of the Colégio Adventista de Belo Horizonte, Élida Santana, did not let the date go unnoticed. She had the initiative to promote a “Fitness Exchange” among elementary II and high school students of Adventist Education in the states of Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, and Espírito Santo.

Incentive

The project deals with the execution of physical exercises through the internet, but with a difference: students from the Southeast region interacting with each other—that is, creating new friendships that encourage them to run away from a sedentary lifestyle.

The classes lasted 50 minutes, with 25 dedicated to functional training, such as stretching, jumping jacks, squats, etc., which stimulates specific parts of the body.

Aware of the pandemic of the sedentary lifestyle that COVID-19 has caused among adolescents and young people, professor Élida Santana emphasizes the importance of action and the need, during the pandemic, to perform at least 30 minutes of physical activity at home. 

This article was originally published on the South American Division’s Portuguese news site