SOLE impact - Fitness

The educational component of the SOLE impact program is two-fold: physical education and lecture-based education. Both elements reflect our goals to inspire girls to fitness, philanthropy and an end to cancer. In this section, we will discuss physical fitness. Our methods include proper running safety and techniques, fitness for life, agility drills, muscle group identification, strength and flexibility, cardiovascular awareness, proper breathing and mental preparation and focus.

We begin each seasonal session with a question and answer period to determine the group’s core knowledge of fitness, running and overall body awareness. After this initial assessment, we are able to tailor our curriculum and group participants in the most efficient capacity for learning. It is our goal to teach girls the importance of self-responsibility as it relates to their personal health and fitness.

Running: Running is a fitness activity that requires little equipment and is very conducive to group participation. Our methods are taught as a component of fitness in a non-competitive environment with a long term goal focus.

Safety: SOLE impact emphasizes safety as the most important component to running. Always run with a parent or parent approved family member/friend, stay on a safe course (preferably a well lit path away from traffic) or if running in traffic – ALWAYS run on the far edge of the shoulder against traffic so that you are able to spot approaching cars. Be mindful of hydration – do not wait until you become thirsty to drink.

Proper Technique: SOLE impact concentrates on the proper elements of a healthy runner. Core engagement, limited upper body movement, breathing and intentional steps are crucial to each step.

Pacing Yourself: Speed and finishing first are not the goal/focus. Finding a comfortable running pace to endure longer runs and speak conversationally with a friend are key. Cardiovascular endurance as a fitness component is essential to a healthy heart as an adult and pacing is a crucial factor.

Sprints, Interval Runs, Endurance Runs: In this segment, we focus on challenging our musculature and cardiovascular systems to enhance our fitness levels. Sprints are an anaerobic activity requiring short bursts of energy and recruit heavily on fast twitch muscle fibers. Interval Runs are both anaerobic and aerobic in nature and challenge the runner’s heart rate as it is forced to increase and decrease in beats per minute - both fast and slow twitch muscle fibers are recruited. Endurance Runs focus on distance, not time, and weigh heavily on slow twitch muscle fiber recruitment.

Fall Goal: to complete a 5K community run – Hit the Trail 5K
Spring Goal: to complete a 2mi run – The Two Mile Tulip Trot

Fitness for Life
As goals are fundamental to retaining focus in an activity, fitness for life principles are imperative to longevity in health and fitness. Goals may include training for a particular race, aerobic activity for 30 minutes per day, riding your bike to the grocery store, playing at the park or walking your dog once a day. A fitness lifestyle does not require expensive equipment or a complicated program, just the will to get out and be active, everyday.

Agility Drills
Apparatus – Apparatus such as speed ladders and cones are utilized to provide directional challenges as SOLE impact participants move laterally and forward through a drill set, recruiting smaller muscle fibers to complete intricate movements.

Non-apparatus – Some examples of non-apparatus drills are grapevines, high knees, kick backs, bounding, vertical jumps, squat jumps, switch lunges and mountain climbers. The drills listed focus mainly on fast twitch muscle fibers and short bursts of energy, anaerobic training.

Musle Group Identification:
SOLE impact participants learn to identify all major muscle groups and how each group moves joints and joint system in their bodies.

Musle Strengthening
As a companion program to running – we learn the importance of strengthening muscle groups to ensure joint health and protection of important joints. Training sides of the body separately and independent of the opposite side, provides muscular balance and provides a challenging activity for the brain.

Flexibility: As we strengthen and shorten muscles through deliberate exercise and daily activities such as walking and sitting we must counteract the shortening with a flexibility program. Shortening can lead to imbalances in the body that ultimately could lead to injuries.

Cardiovascular Fitness
Understanding the cardiovascular system and its critical role in supplying oxygen to all muscles and organs is a key element. SOLE impact participants learn to find their heart rate, understand lung capacity in anaerobic and aerobic activities and discover chamber-oriented delivery of oxygen to lungs and muscles and organs. SOLE impact participants appreciate their bodies as machines that power our movements and daily activities.

Mental Preparation and Focus
The use of motivational words and positive mental reinforcement to focus and endure during long runs is a common thread. SOLE impact participants acquire skills to mentally start, restart and finish during a race or long training run.