In educational circles these days, subjects like reading, math, and science generally get top billing in local school districts. And at the bottom comes music, art, and physical education… often in that order. In other words, when the local budget slashers look at where they can cut educational funds and services, physical education suddenly gets an unwanted spotlight.

The Big Challenge

But interestingly enough with the recent challenge of childhood obesity getting so much media attention, physical educators suddenly have a golden opportunity to turn the tables, and transform themselves from budget cutting victims into indispensable community heroes.

That is to say, if you can cost effectively show the kids in your classes how to naturally immunize themselves against

obesity for a lifetime, without resorting to shots, pills, or special diets, (and get the local media to talk about it) your colleagues including fellow teachers, the building principal, district administrators, the superintendent of schools, the school board, and the parents will erect a statue in your image, and offer you a well earned raise in place of a pink slip.

Most Don t Know About OPYOW

The problem is, most physical educators don’t know how to teach their students to naturally immunize themselves against obesity for a lifetime, without resorting to shots, pills, or special diets. In other words, most physical educators don’t know about an incredibly simple, cost effective program called Operation Pull Your Own Weight that

I’m about to describe in the following paragraphs.

Wall A, Wall B

However most of them will relate to the following scenario. Walk into any physical education class in the USA and ask all the kids who are able to do at least one legitimate pull up to stand by wall A. Then ask all the kids who are unable to do one pull to stand on wall B. What you ll witness is what I call the great fitness divide, with the relatively strong and trim kids standing by wall A, and the relatively weak and heavy kids standing by wall B.

The Basic Strategy

The basic strategy for Operation Pull Your Own Weight then is to systematically

transport as many kids as possible from wall B to wall A, and encourage them to always maintain their newfound ability. Why? Because people who can do pull ups can’t carry much excess weight. And people who carry much excess weight, can’t do pull ups. This little observation is called the Golden Rule of Operation Pull Your Own Weight.

The Question Becomes

Presuming most physical educators can identify with this scenario, the question suddenly becomes, “How do you teach kids to pull ups when pull ups are most likely the most universally hated exercise on planet earth.” The answer is, you have to recognize that it’s not really pull ups that kids really hate. It s FAILING IN FRONT

OF THEIR PEERS that kids really hate.

Kids who can do pull ups and who succeed in front of their peers, don’t hate pull ups. In fact they enjoy being able to tackle a difficult task like pull ups, and succeed in front of their peers. It becomes a badge of honor, a status symbol. I personally witnessed an entire school full of kids learning to love pull ups back in the early nineties.

Here s How It Works
So how do you make pull ups accessible to all kids, and transform hated failure into joyful success? You use a simple device called a HEIGHT ADJUSTABLE PULL UP BAR (it raises and lowers in one inch increments) in conjunction with

LEG ASSISTED PULL UPS (encouraging kids to jump and pull simultaneously) that allows almost all kids to succeed on the pull up bar immediately in front of their peers, for eight, ten, or even twelve (or more) consecutive weeks.

You simply allow kids to keep their feet on the ground, lower the bar to a point where they can jump and pull simultaneously, and easily perform eight leg assisted pull ups in workout # 1. In workout # 2 they re allowed to do nine pull ups. In workout # 3 ten, in # 4 eleven, and finally in workout # 5 they re allowed to do twelve pull ups.

When they re able to do 12 pull

ups, the bar is raised ONE INCH and the whole eight to twelve routine is repeated over and over again until their pull up goal (the ability to do at least one) is reached. Sometimes it takes several months for kids to eventually run out of leg assistance and to reach the point where they re doing real live pull ups IN FRONT OF THEIR PEERS and loving every second of it.
When they succeed, they get congratulated (high fives) by the teacher and their peers. It happens automatically, and participants learn to look forward to the entire experience. At that point pull ups become highly valued instead of despised.

Opportunity Not Obligation
At Jefferson Elementary School, in Davenport, IA

where this strategy was first pioneered, pull ups were always treated as an opportunity (you got to do pull ups) not an obligation (you had to do pull ups). Kids were allowed to work out only twice a week, and to do only one pull up more than they did last time.

Strong VS Weak, Not Good VS Bad

OPYOW also took full advantage of every kid s desire to be strong and to avoid being weak at anything. Have you ever met a child who wants to be weak at anything? And the ability to do pull ups is universally associated with being strong. In other words we never talked about avoiding obesity. We always talked

about getting stronger on the pull up bar. The conversation was always positive, and we avoided negativity.

Lessons Bred Into OPYOW Participants

And how does a kid grow strong on the pull up bar? There are six simple answers to this question and teachers were constantly reinforcing them throughout the PYOW experience. In a very hands-on way kids learned that, in order to gain strength on the pull up bar they had to
work regularly,
eat right,
get sufficient rest at night,
and avoid tobacco,
alcohol, and
drugs THEY MAKE YOU WEAK!

This point cannot be overstated so I ll repeat

it once more. These kids were exposed week after week after week to the lessons of OPYOW which included
Gaining strength (on the bar) is an opportunity not a right in other words, in this school you could be denied the opportunity to get on pull up bar if you failed to get your work done or you misbehaved in class…a reward for good behavior.
You gain strength through regular work
You gain strength by eating right
You gain strength by getting enough rest
You become weak by fooling around with tobacco, alcohol, and drugs
Kids also learned that NOBODY CAN DO IT FOR YOU
Kids learned to tackle a difficult task and to succeed in public by setting concrete goals, and growing in small, but regular, predictable increments.

Self Respect, Self Confidence, and Dignity
Interestingly enough the same principles that apply to strength gain on the pull up bar also apply to strength gain in reading, writing, arithmetic, and anything else in life. And by participating in OPYOW, kids not only immunize themselves against obesity for a lifetime, but they also develop a tangible sense of self respect, self confidence, and dignity that are cultivated most effectively when the PYOW seed is planted at a young age, and allowed to develop right on into adulthood.

A Golden Opportunity Indeed
All that

with a simple, low tech, inexpensive height adjustable pull up bar. As I said previously, if you can show the students in your physical education classes how to immunize themselves against obesity for a lifetime, without having to resort to pills, shots, or special diets to do the trick, and you let the local newspaper, radio and TV stations know about it, you ll also become an indispensable member of the staff and you ll forget the budget slashers once and for all a golden opportunity indeed.

Rick Osbourne is a Chicago based, freelance writer who currently serves as Executive Director of Operation Pull Your Own Weight, an informational web site that’s dedicated to naturally immunizing kids against obesity for

a lifetime without pills, shots, or special diets. If you’re interested in [http://www.childhood-obesity-prevention.com]childhood and obesity, then check out http://www.pullyourownweight.net any time. Osbourne is also a public speaker, and he s recently published an e-book entitled Operation Pull Your Own Weight: A Radically Simple Solution to Childhood Obesity ( http://booksonboard.com/index.php?BODY=viewbook&BOOK=139219) that provides practical minded parents and educators with a simple, functional, affordable, and infinitely measurable antidote to childhood obesity.