A New Bedford Elementary School Teacher’s Fitness Challenge

A teacher in New Bedford has a great way to keep you and your kids upbeat and positive during everything that's going on right now.

Allyson Bejma, the Phys Ed teacher at Jacobs Elementary School, says that fitness keeps you feeling good inside and out during this time of isolation and home quarantine, and we think she is so right.

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Happy Fitness Friday! Ms. Bejma (Jacobs ES) created this challenge: 💥Perform 2 push-ups 💥Perform 2 mountain climbers 💥Repeat this pattern for 1 minute 💥1 point for every push-up completed 💥Modification: Perform push-ups from knees Use these activities as a brain break in between your school work assignments!

A post shared by New Bedford Public Schools (@newbedfordpublicschools) on May 8, 2020 at 6:30am PDT

Each day, Ms. Bejma hops onto Zoom and puts together these awesome and short workouts that we can all do in between tasks during the day while we're working from home. She designs these workouts to be brief but effective.

Ms. Benjem says to her students, "Use these activities as a brain break in between your schoolwork assignments!"

Me personally? I will take and use any form of daily movement (even just 10-15 minutes)  to help keep a positive mindset on track. This pandemic would and could be the perfect excuse for anyone to become distant, down and depressed, and who could blame you, right? But incorporating small forms of exercise into your daily life helps to fire up positive endorphins in the brain which in turn make you feel good for the following 24-48 hours after you exercise.

Some simple things you can do:

Five-minute squat set with hands crossed over chest.

Five-minute plank sets shooting for a 30-second plank hold followed by 30 seconds of rest.

Five-minute kettlebell routine (start light with 5 pounds) 1 minute of basic swings followed by 30 seconds of rest.

Five-minute sit-ups and crunches with one minute of slow sit-ups followed by 30 seconds of rest. Then one minute of crunches followed by 30 seconds of rest.

And one of my favorite ways to take a movement break in-between work tasks is to take a brisk 10-minute walk around my neighborhood for some fresh air and to get my heart rate up a little bit. I return home in a very short period of time feeling so much better physically but more so mentally, and that is very important at a time like now.