By early middle school, over 50% of the target youth at BGCS are already considered to be overweight and obese. Obese youth have a higher prevalence of becoming obese teenagers who, are at significant risk of becoming obese adults. People who are overweight are more likely to suffer from chronic diseases such as: diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia, all risk factors for heart disease and stroke.
YES3 program will:
- Conduct a comprehensive health and wellness screening for participants to serve as a baseline and a way to track improvements made
- Provide free annual health screens to YES3 families on MU’s campus to help parents understand their health and wellness and increase their motivation to make the appropriate lifestyle changes needed at home to facilitate weight loss.
- Provide FREE optional fasting glucose (glucometer) and lipid screens. These are important due to the high incidence of diabetes and metabolic syndrome in the Hispanic population.
- Provide professional fitness instructors to perform 50-minutes of “bootcamp” strength classes followed by a 2nd group aerobics classes (50- mins) such a Zumba or Salsa required 2 days/wk. After a short water break, students will switch classes and get a total of 200 minutes of aerobic, muscle, and bone building physical activity each week.
For Parents
Establish a goal
Your child's health and fitness are evaluated twice a year in the YES3 program and they are given a fitness and wellness report cards through Cooper Institute’s FITNESSGRAM. Using a baseline fitness tool is key to helping kids and parents know what their strengths are and where they need improvements. Youth WILL set goals from the results and work with Fitness Professionals and parents to create a realistic action plan. Classes offered exclusively for YES3 include a boot camp type work out for strength and aerobics for endurance.
Encourage Family Participation.
Engaging families to desire a healthier lifestyle is not easy. Plan outings as a family that involve being active: biking, hiking, swimming at the lake, or a family night competing in a Dance Dance Revolution tournament. Be creative, make it fun, and set goals. Need help? Just ask us. Contact: Kelly Dione at (414) 649-2819 or kelly.dione@marquette.edu
For Students
Move every day!
Young people need at least 60 minutes of exercise daily. There is a reason for the NFL60 initiative! Here are some ways to improve their FITNESSGRAM scores and reach their goals
To increase Aerobic Capacity (pacer test number)
- Bike, jog, swim, hike, rope jumping, sports for longer and longer periods of time.
- Jumping jacks, full court basketball when you are RUNNING the full court
- Sign up a team for a 5k and start a running club (get parents involved, or challenge them!)
- Participate in dance classes
- The key is to keep moving for longer times (20 mins or more at a comfortable pace) OR to play really hard (breath hard, sweat) for shorter times (1-3 mins) and to do it multiple times.
To improve muscular strength, endurance
- Do resistance training at least 2-3 days per week
- Pushups, modified pull ups, monkey bars, weighted bar chest press
- Jumping, leaping, climbing
To improve core strength
- Do resistance training 3-4 days per week
- Planks, supermans, sit-ups, curl-ups
To improve flexibility
- Stretch slowly 3-4 days wach week holding the stretch 20-30 seconds
- Yoga and ti chi
