Thinking back over the seventeen years I spent teaching Physical Education and coaching various sports, one thing stands out to me as I read more and more about the obesity epidemic that?s stalking our nation?s kids today. During those years I noticed that kids who could perform pull ups were never overweight. And kids who were overweight could never perform pull ups. Now I know you don?t have to be a gym teacher in order to see that. It?s common knowledge. It?s so common in fact that I think we?ve overlooked it as an incredibly simple solution to childhood obesity. Let me explain.Every Gym Teacher Knows What I?m Talking About From this simple observation that at least every other gym teacher in the nation will recognize, I drew the following conclusion. Start young (i.e. grades k, 1, and 2) before they?ve had a chance to gain much excess weight, and teach them to be able to perform at least one pull up. Then teach them that as long as they maintain the ability to perform at least one pull up, they can never be much overweight. Furthermore, the more pull ups they can do, the leaner and stronger they?ll be, naturally. Now Hold Your Horses? ?But hold your horses here,? you say. I can hear it all now. ?How am I going to teach my students to do pull ups when 90% of them completely despise the exercise, and whenever possible, they avoid the pull up bar like the plague? This not the military or a police academy where you can force the participants to do pull ups. This is a school. How can I teach kids to do something that they?d never practice? And even if they wanted to practice (which they don?t), most of my students can?t do pull ups, so they couldn?t practice even if they wanted to.? So How Do You Teach Kids To Love Doing Pull Ups These are of course good questions and I wouldn?t be writing this article if I wasn?t pretty sure that I had a good, quick, and practical answer in hand. So here goes. The solution to the problem is to use a height adjustable pull up bar which you can create inexpensively by hanging a chain (one inch links) solidly from a height of ten feet (picture it attached to a basketball backboard), so it reaches down to approximately three feet from the floor. This will accommodate the required height adjustment for all kids. Now using a snap hook and a center mounted pull up bar, you can attach the bar to the chain at any height you choose. You can raise and lower the bar at one inch increments, which will allow every student in your class to find a level where they can perform at least eight LEG ASSISTED PULL UPS. That is to say you can find a level where every student succeeds in front of their peers. Failure is not part of this program. Student?s Inch Their Way To Success The strategy is to allow students to work out two to three times per week and increase their repetitions from eight to nine, ten, eleven, and twelve reps. When they can do twelve repetitions at a particular height, you move the bar up one inch and begin the whole eight to twelve rep routine all over again. What you?ll witness is kids ?inching? their way up the chain over time, until eventually they run out of leg assistance. At that point they?ll have learned to do real live pull ups, a feat that most of ?em could never do before you took the time to teach them how. Emphasizing Self Competition It?s important to emphasize self competition over competition with other students. Every student is different, and they will start at various starting points and finish at various times. But the key ingredient is that each student makes visible progress regularly. It?s important they see that they are better this week than last week, better this month than last month, which means that if they persist, they will reach the goal of being able to physically pull their own weight. Some Will Need To Make Adjustments Now in order to reach this end goal,some kids will have to adjust their nutritional intake and lose a little weight. Others may want to add some calorie burning aerobic work to accomplish a similar goal. And still others may want to experiment with the time of day they when work out, or the amount of sleep they get at night. Regardless, encourage them to do whatever they need to do (short of anabolic steroids) to get their chin up to the bar without needing of leg assistance. Interestingly enough, you will find that the kids will make those adjustments naturally, on their own because when it?s presented right, public success is built into the program right from the get go. And as successes are piled on top of successes in very thin slices, they add up to big successes, and the feeling that they can try something a little bit harder in front of the other kids and still expect to succeed will become more and more prevalent and resilient with each new workout.Self Confidence Will Win The Day Before you know it, the self esteem and self confidence that comes from succeeding in public will be visible in the way the student approaches all kinds of new tasks, from the pull up bar to memorizing their multiplication tables. When that ?yes I can? attitude is firmly in place and has permeated every pore, you the gym teacher will have done much more than giving them a functional tool with which to avoid obesity for the rest of their life?which in itself is no small feat today. You will also have given those students an inner strength that will carry them through school, through the workplace, through the ups and downs of modern day family life. You will effectively give them the green light that will help them battle their way through the challenges that life inevitably offers, and the persistence to come out the other side with a smile on their face and a cup half full instead of half empty. And if you do, you will be the best teacher these kids will ever know. Not too bad for teaching kids to do pull ups, wouldn?t you agree? Beginning of Side Bar What Should The Gym Teacher?s Goal Be? I suggest that you find a starting place for every member of your class at the beginning of the school year. You?ll discover right off the bat that some will be able to do regular pull ups, while others will need to use the leg assisted technique to learn how. With this thought in mind, the gym teacher?s goal in my view should be to monitor the percentage of kids who can do regular pull ups, and to make sure that percentage is always going up. For example if ten percent of your class can do real live pull ups at the beginning of the year, it would be great if fifteen could do it by semester time, and twenty percent by the end of the school year?although you may do much better than that. In short, the closer we get to having all students vaccinated against obesity by maintaining the ability to physically pull their own weight, the closer we will be to winning the war on obesity. End of Side Bar Rick Osbourne is a Chicago based freelance writer who currently serves as Executive Director for Operation Pull Your Own Weight, an informational web site dedicated to showing parents and educators how to naturally immunize kids against obesity for a lifetime without shots, pills, or fancy diets to get the job done. If you're interested in knowing more about http://www.childhood-obesity-prevention.com http://www.childhood-obesity-prevention.com childhood and obesity or http://www.childhood-obesity-prevention.com http://www.childhood-obesity-prevention.com obesity in America check out the web site at http://www.pullyourownweight.net. http://www.pullyourownweight.net. Rick can be reached via email at Osbourne.rick@gmail.com or by phone during business hours.

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Childhood obesity afflicts denizens across the social sphere. It is a problem for individuals of all racial, ethnic, educational, and socio-economic backgrounds. It has been estimated that half the United States? adult population is overweight. Recently, it was calculated that about twenty percent of all American children are overweight. Obesity causes the growth pattern to accelerate to an unnatural extent; one of the side effects of this can be abnormal sexual development in boys and the early onset of menses. What?s more, obese children are a lot more likely to grow in to obese adults. They risk contracting such health problems and diseases as diabetes 2, gout, cancer, gallbladder disease, arthritis, digestion problems, respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, and high blood pressure, among others. What?s more, obese children suffer from the psychological and emotional consequences of being fat in a society that considers this image to be the opposite of ideal. Overweight children often have fewer friends, and more likely to be stigmatized in social situations. It has been found that children tend to associate obesity with negative characteristics such as laziness and greed. Obese children often suffer from depression and low self esteem. While medical conditions and hormone imbalances are often blamed as causes for obesity, the fact remains that these conditions account for less than one percent of all childhood obesity cases. Nor can the problem be blamed completely on genetics, because oftentimes the problem has more to do with the family?s behavior when it comes to eating habits and exercise. Since obesity tends to be a disease that effects all members of the family ? not just the child ? the parents? lifestyle must change also in order to instill healthy patterns in the child. A positive attitude towards overcoming obesity can lead to success. Read opinions and promote your views at http://www.theworldsbesthomepage.com The World's Best Homepage and read and submit reviews and opinions at http://www.free-content- resource.com Free Opinions and Content

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One of the more disturbing trends in today?s society is that of childhood obesity. It has become an epidemic around the United States in the last two decades. Since the 1970s, there has been an alarming growth in the statistics of children and young adults who are considered to be obese. It is estimated today that nearly fifteen percent of all children living in our society are at least overweight, if not obese. While it is easy to diagnose obesity, it is not a condition that is very easy to treat. If an overweight child is not able to curb her eating habits and adapt to regular cycles of exercise, it is likely that she will grow in to an obese adult. The fact is, thirty percent of obese adults were obese children. Deaths related to obesity causes number in six digit figures annually, and society is forced to spend nearly $100 billion each year in taxes related to obesity problems. What causes obesity in children and young adults? The causes can be linked to a variety of factors, including nutrition, family, genetics, and physical activity. If one has an obese parent, the chances are 50-50 that the child will grow up to be obese. When both parents struggle with this problem, the percentage of risk is even greater ? eighty percent. While genetics to do play a significant role in factoring obesity, it is important to keep in mind that bad eating habits, stress, and lack of exercise can also contribute to overweight and obesity.The effects of childhood obesity are numerous. High cholesterol, high blood pressure, and the development of diseases such as type 2 diabetes are all major health risks that result from obesity. Obese adults frequently struggle against heart disease. Children with a normal healthy rate rarely suffer from these conditions.What?s more, obesity can have serious psychological effects on children. The biggest problem is with self-esteem issues that results from discrimination on a social level. One recent study had obese children rate their general quality of life; they scored as low as cancer patients in chemotherapy. The children were asked to fill out a questionnaire rating their abilities to perform every day activities such as get along with others in their peer group, keep up with the rest of the class in school, sleep well, play sports, and walk a distance of more than one city block. Obese children scored low in all these areas, indicating that their quality of life was very low. Parents who were asked to fill out a similar questionnaire about their children ranked even lower in their assessment of their children?s quality of life.We live in a culture that sends out very strong messages about ideal beauty and body weight. Girls are encouraged to constantly diet and exercise until they attain a fit, thin body. Boys are told to constantly work out and do whatever is necessary to attain a buff, muscular fa?ade. This puts both obese boys and obese girls at risk for developing psychological and eating disorders.Visit us or share your opinions at http://www.theworldsbesthomepage.com the worlds best homepage or http://www.free-content-resource.com free content resource

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