Rope skipping, endurance and a class circuit

1Why this matters

A football match lasts 90 minutes, and a 3 km walk to school takes about 40. Both need endurance, the ability to keep going for a long time without tiring. The World Health Organization advises young people aged 5 to 17 to be active for at least 60 minutes every day. In this lesson you combine the exercises you already know into a circuit that trains endurance and strength in one session, and you learn to run it for a group.

2Endurance

Cardiorespiratory endurance is how well your heart, lungs and blood supply oxygen to your working muscles over a long period. It improves when you exercise steadily for many minutes: running at an even pace, rope skipping, cycling or a circuit. To check that your pace is steady rather than too hard, use the talk test: you should still be able to speak a short sentence.

3Rope skipping

On your own: choose a rope whose handles reach about your armpits when you stand on its middle. Turn it with small circles of the wrists, keep your elbows close to your sides, and jump only 2 to 3 cm, landing on the balls of your feet.

Long rope, in a group: two turners hold the ends of a long rope and turn it together while the others jump.

1. Stand beside one turner, facing the middle of the rope.
2. Watch the rope. Just after it touches the ground and sweeps away from you, run in behind it to the middle.
3. Jump each time the rope comes under your feet. Keep your jumps small.
4. To leave, run out diagonally to the other side just after the rope passes under your feet.

Turners keep the rope's lowest point just touching the ground and turn with a steady rhythm. Everyone takes a turn at turning.

4Circuit training

Circuit training is a set of different exercises done at stations, one after another, with only short breaks between them. One circuit is one completion of every station. Good circuits follow three rules:

• Alternate body parts (legs, arms, stomach, whole body), so that each muscle group recovers while another works.
• Time every station the same, for example 30 seconds of work and 30 seconds to rest and move.
• Make it safe: flat ground, enough space between stations, water nearby, and a clear signal to start, stop and move.

In the plan above, the two leg stations (squats and lunges) are not next to each other, and each strength station is followed by a different body part.

Worked example: running the circuit for a class

Mr Nkusi's class of 40 students uses the 8-station circuit above. Each station lasts 30 seconds, followed by 30 seconds to rest and move. They do 2 circuits with 2 minutes of rest between them.

With a 7-minute warm-up and a 5-minute relaxation at the end, the total is 30 minutes, which fits into a 40-minute lesson with time to set up.

Guiding others. Before the start, a student leader shows each station once. Each station has a card with the exercise name and one key point ("Push-ups: straight as a plank"). The timekeeper blows one whistle blast to start work and two blasts to stop and move clockwise.

Practice

Solution. How well the heart, lungs and blood supply oxygen to the working muscles over a long period.

Solution. Both stations work the legs, so the leg muscles get no chance to recover. Swap station 4 with an arm, stomach or whole-body station, for example push-ups.

Solution. One circuit = 6 × (45 + 15) = 6 × 60 = 360 s = 6 minutes. Three circuits = 3 × 6 = 18 minutes.

Solution. Just after the rope touches the ground and sweeps away from you. Then run to the middle and jump when it comes under your feet.

Solution. 36 ÷ 6 = 6 students.