We all hope that you have had a good Easter and the ‘Easter Bunny’ (or the amazon delivery man!) delivered some treats to lift the spirits over the break. We return to a new summer term – although in different circumstances than we are all used to. Given that the break from school is now extended and social distancing will continue for a little while longer, we feel that it is important to remind you once 
again about the importance of getting enough physical exercise. I have attached an infographic to remind everyone about the recommended daily amount of exercise we need to stay healthy. Please remember to social distance and keep to the latest government COVID19 guidelines.
Even the most enthusiastic of us may now be finding it difficult to maintain a fitness regime, this far into the restrictions the novelty of it all may be wearing a little thin!
Mixing it Up and Trying Something Different
We thought we would ask one of the most enthusiastic and fittest of all the PE teachers, Mr Adderley, for some top tips for maintaining fitness:
“Hey everyone, I hope you are all well. Everyone suffers from ‘dips’ in motivation when training and inevitably there are periods when our improvements plateau. Sport psychologists and athletes are always searching for ways to increase motivation and research shows there are two main ways to keep the motivation going. When you recognise that you are getting bored with what you are doing, make sure you try something different! This change, called variation of training, can really help. I have been doing a morning Joe Wicks live PE workout and lunchtime High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) session to help me mix things up. To help with your variation, we
have updated our ‘NetFlex’ presentation to help you find a different
form of exercise.
The other way to maintain your enthusiasm is to track your progress, setting achievable targets and noting your success is a great way to keep the interest. This might be recording the times on your run or recording the number of press ups you can do. Remember that there are always ups and downs, as you can see with my times, but through consistency and commitment you will improve your times, or the number of reps. Plus, it will feel easier to do what seemed hard at the start! There are so many ways to track performance, modern technology helps us apply techniques that were reserved for the very elite performers only a decade ago. Follow the link to see a list of the 5 app-based ideas to help you track your performance. 5 Free Apps Good luck everyone, I hope to see you soon.”
Athletics Season
It is little bittersweet that the sun is shining – the Physical Education Teams would normally be gearing up for a full summer athletics season. The school’s athletics events are some of the most exciting events in the calendar and they will sorely be missed. If like us you are missing this part of the curriculum you might find including elements of the track and field season into your daily dose of exercise. We have asked the GFM athletics guru’s Mr Way and Mr Thurgood for any tips and advice they might have to include some athletics into your daily fitness regime:
“Hi, It is Mr Way here! Try checking out the British Athletics Webpage:#AthleticsAtHome. You will be able to get some inspiration from the top athletes and see how they are training at home. Hope to see you all soon.” Mr Thurgood adds, “Hi, Like Mr Adderley I have been trying to mix it up a little bit. The circuit training will really help your athletics but to make it different try completing the following task. CircuitNameChallange It helps by adding variation by using the letters in your name….I have got 28 letters in mine so it was a bit of challenge! Good Luck everyone and looking forward to seeing you all as soon as we can, stay safe.”
Finding Some Inspiration
Like me you might need that bit of extra inspiration to keep up the training. There is a reason participation in Tennis goes up around the time of Wimbledon! So try to watch some sport and activity to inspire you. The news that the Olympics has been postponed for a year will be disappointing, this would have been the highlight of a summer of sport. However, try checking out the ‘The Olympic Channel’ to watch highlights from previous Olympic games that may inspire you to push a little further!
I am really missing the opportunity to go sailing, this is normally an important part of my own daily dose of physical activity. To overcome the lack of live sport to inspire us I have been checking out ‘Redbull TV’ for inspiration. There are a whole range of different sports to wet your appetite and help you focus on those fitness sessions.
This Sunday 26th April would have been the Virgin Money London Marathon, which is the world’s biggest one-day fundraising event, and raised more than £66.4 million for thousands of charities in 2019. Many of these charities have had to reduce or stop services at a time when vulnerable members of society need them most – but you can help by either raising money or simply awareness whilst keeping fit! Why not visit www.twopointsixchallenge.co.uk Anyone can take on the challenge – All you need to do is dream up an activity based around the numbers 26 (the number of miles in a marathon) or 2.6 that suits your skills and complete it on Sunday 26 April – when the 40th London Marathon would have taken place. This could be something as simple as pledging to run or ride 2.6 miles as your daily exercise, holding the plank for 2.6 minutes, to gardening for 26 minutes.
Join us online
Please don’t forget that we are really busy online. The daily challenges continue on our secondary Instagram pages and our Gosport SGO twitter feed. We asked the Gosport School Games Organiser, Miss Huntington about the positive response we have had from the whole of the GFM community. “We have been so impressed by the up-take from across the GFM schools. The #HSGDailyChallenge is now a national initiative supported by the Youth Sport Trust. The GFM schools have been top of the participation leader board in Hampshire! Go Team! These daily challenges will be running throughout the term so please come and get involved.”
The PE department is always looking for the best ways to keep you active through our social media connection and Google Classrooms. We would welcome any feedback on what you would have liked so far and what you would like to see more of over the next few weeks. What type of exercise would you like to see the teachers support you with? Please DM the account to let us know your thoughts!
We hope you all stay safe and healthy. Please don’t forget that the PE teachers are all available via Google classrooms if you need us. Stay active, we will see you soon.
All the best Mr Osborne.