Here's a top-notch health benefit to daily physical activity - improving functional fitness. It's the "I can" component of life. It is purposeful activity that addresses the components of fitness -- flexibility, strength and endurance and cardiorespiratory capacity.

Improving functional fitness means improving your ability to do all the things you like to do, from hiking in the mountains, to making it through an entire game of one on one basketball. But it also means having the ability to easily deal with the daily tasks of living. Functional fitness is the level of fitness required to do the activities you enjoy without putting stress on the abilities of your body. Taking out the garbage, mowing the lawn, walking the dog or walking to school can all be done without a second thought if your body is fit or you have the energy to complete the task.

Putting functional fitness in this context may motivate your students to make changes to improve their cardiorespiratory capacity, muscular strength and endurance, as well as flexibility.

The examples in this section focus on these components of functional fitness, so students begin to recognize the benefit of improving their personal scope of "I can" in relation to physical activity.

Scroll down for sample activities that focus on this curriculum organizer for your 4-6 physical education students.

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