1. Avoid Playground Hassles
Any recess monitor can attest that a variety of issues can stem from unstructured time spent on playgrounds. Children need close supervision during recess to avoid accidents and behavioral problems. After all, kids are just learning how to share, play nice, and get along with others. However, run clubs directly decrease playground troubles by releasing children’s energy and boosting moods. Though some incidents can’t be completely removed (kids will be kids!), run clubs help ensure recess stays a beneficial activity for children—and less of a hassle for teachers.
2. Reduce Childhood Obesity
Obesity can cause several health risks for children, both as children and later in life. Back in 2017–2018, a staggering total of 14.4 million children in the US were obese. To break it down even further, 13.4% of those children were 2-5 year-olds, while 20.3% were 6-11 year-olds. Run clubs help target and prevent obesity for elementary school children by encouraging regular exercise whenever possible—before class, after class, or during school through brain breaks, recess, and Physical Education.
Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic only worsened childhood obesity concerns. With fewer opportunities for regular exercise during this time, all BMI categories except underweight experienced significant weight rate increases. For severely obese children, they gained an average of 7.3 pounds over a 6-month period, compared to a weight gain of 2.7 pounds for healthy children. To reverse this negative trend, teachers are increasingly utilizing run clubs because of all the benefits. In fact, Fitness Finder’s Mileage Club® schools ran more than 7 million miles in the 2019–2020 school year despite the start of the pandemic.
3. Goal Setting
Run clubs allow children to track their achievements and earn rewards, which encourages them to strive for more. Mileage Club® uses an app called EZ Scan®; it tracks kids’ laps and collects data to keep them updated on how they’re doing. Most importantly, EZ Scan® allows teachers to set goals that are achievable for all students, whether they consider themselves to be active or not. This makes it easy for kids to recognize that they can do this and anything else they set their minds to, which is a great attribute to carry with them as they grow older.
4. Excitement/Engagement
When something is engaging and fun, kids will be more willing to participate—that’s what run clubs are all about! We want kids to enjoy exercise and have fun in this collaborative atmosphere, which is why school run clubs offer awards and incentives for achieving their goals.
"A study based in Canada from the 1990s found that adding rewards to their run club increased participation from children by 50%."
Recent studies have replicated that result. For Mileage Club, we incentivize kids to participate by rewarding Toe Tokens—charms that come in a variety of colors and styles that kids love to display because of their hard work. Teachers that we’ve worked with agree that rewards keep kids motivated. They say that the kids are excited to run and can’t wait to do so!
5. Reduce Sitting Time
Ever heard that sitting is the new smoking? While the phrase was originally coined to call out the sedentary lifestyle of adults through their desk jobs, driving, and TV watching, it’s applicable to children now as well. Between school and home, children are spending 60% of their day seated! Although seemingly harmless, sitting for extended periods of time can be quite harmful. For young girls who sit uninterrupted for just three hours, it can cause a major reduction in their vascular function (the body’s ability to carry blood through the veins and arteries). Because of these consequences, it’s important to get kids up and moving.
6. Brain Breaks
Run clubs provide children with the brain breaks necessary to divert their energy to a fun, stress-free activity, allowing them to reenter the classroom with their full attention. With shorter attention spans, kids need these short breaks to recoup back to the task at hand. In 2016, psychologist Karrie Godwin measured students’ attentiveness over the course of a class period. The results? Kids spent a quarter of the time distracted, meaning that shorter, bite-sized lessons with brain breaks in-between better help kids focus on their lessons and their teacher. Plus, the study promoted other benefits that brain breaks provide, such as decreased stress, an increase in productivity and brain function, and more opportunities for kids to socialize with each other. Run clubs achieve all three of these benefits, giving kids a healthy break with other students and placing them back into the classroom refreshed and ready to learn!
7. Learning ReadinessIt’s undeniable that physical activity in a child’s day increases their ability to learn, and especially improves attention and memory. For example, one such study showed that physical fitness improved academic performance, and expressly called for schools to dedicate time in the day for gym and recess rather than scrapping those for more class time. As noted in the previous paragraph, physical activity only improves kids’ brain function by giving them an enjoyable outlet. Kids often bounce off the walls, so allowing them that time to burn off some extra energy means they can come back into the classroom with a better mindset.
8. Habit Formation
Run clubs help children form healthy habits. In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear lays out a four-step pattern to create habits that improve your health:
- Cue—the trigger for a behavior
- Craving—the motivation behind wanting to do the habit
- Response—the performed habit
- Reward—the end goal
Run clubs follow a similar framework by making regular physical activity part of a child’s routine and providing them with a tangible reward, like Toe Tokens®, at the end. With this in place, children are already well on their way to creating healthy habits that are easy to continue later in life! We highly recommend reading chapter three of Clear’s book, which contains more information on habit formation, to apply these principles to your own plans.
9. Goal-Oriented Social Activity
Sharon Hoover, a co-director of the University of Maryland-based National Center for School Mental Health, made it clear that schools “need to invest now in the mental health and well-being of our kids in a broad and comprehensive way—not just for children with learning disabilities and diagnosed mental health conditions, but for all students.” Run clubs are a great way to provide beneficial tasks to your more social students. They can lean into their communication and empathy strengths while they walk and talk with their peers. They can still achieve their goals and encourage the other kids to do the same. Run clubs are also easily adjusted to practice social-distancing guidelines; kids can still gain the benefits while maintaining safety for themselves and others!
10. Be Everyone’s Favorite TeacherObviously! Kids love it. You’ll be changing their lives—and the lives of their parents and the community—for the better. With this fun group dynamic, you’ll be everyone’s favorite teacher.
The benefits of a run club will greatly impact students, teachers, and the community. Whether you’re starting from scratch or improving an active program, we have everything you need. to help your students be active and have fun. Get started by downloading our FREE Run Club Guide. In no time, your students will be more active, and everyone involved will have a blast.
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