We all want our children to be fit and healthy but when we send them outside to play, it’s difficult to know how much exercise they’ve really had.
Our active spot playground markings solve this need by providing fun stimuli to inspire and support children of all ages to work out a wide range of body parts.
The NHS recently gave us a poignant reminder of what we really need children to achieve for better physical health. Recent NHS guidelines for children and young people aged 5 to 18 suggest all children should do both aerobic exercise and exercises to strengthen their muscles and bones every week – ideally every day.
Of the two types of recommended exercise, the need for children to strengthen both muscles and bones is the part where we often fail to meet expectations.
Yet with their permanent position on your school playground as a thermoplastic playground marking, each active spot marking provides a valuable piece of school sports equipment that any child or adult can use throughout the day to build muscle and bone strength with ease.
Why strong bones and muscles are important
Strong bones and muscles help us to move effectively so we can balance and co-ordinate movements properly. According to Harvard Health, without strong muscles and bones we can get injured easily meaning we’ll experience falls, fractures, injuries and breaks from minor accidents and strains.
Exercises that build stronger muscles and bones increase bone density, muscle flexibility and muscle mass. Each element enables us to balance and co-ordinate movements seamlessly so we can stay active, strong, and safe.
At the same time, children will also be building all-important gross motor skills that are part of each movement.
Why Our Active Spot Circuit Is A Top School Sports Marking
Too often school staff avoid doing exercises with children because they don’t want to show them the wrong movement.
With each active spot showing accurate positioning, it’s easy for everyone to see how to carry out each exercise correctly.
From PE warm-ups and cool-downs across the school to:
– lunchtime circuit training,
– outdoor group activity starters,
– brain breaks,
– warm-ups for the Daily Mile,
– activities for after-school clubs for children or staff,
there are so many ways active spot markings can be used as a brilliant resource for PE and sports by the entire school community.
Custom School Sports Markings
We’re a leading supplier of sports playground markings to schools, nurseries and play spaces across the UK so we know how important flexibility and tailored resources are to you.
You’ll be pleased to know we’ve designed the active spot collection to be as versatile as possible. We’ve researched the most popular and effective exercises for children and included them in our active spots, but we can swap them for any exercises you choose.
Whether you want single spots, a circuit, or a collection of both types, we can create custom active spots that display the exercises of your choice. In fact, our bespoke design service is available across all of our markings for schools so you can always get the best designs for your school community. See active spot markings.
Let’s take a quick look at some of our most popular active spot markings and some top ways to make the most of them as a versatile resource for school sports.
Why Schools Love Our Active Spot Circuit Playground Markings
1. Squat Active Spot
Squats are a simple yet powerful exercise that can help to improve balance, flexibility, joint-strength, posture, and overall body strength.
Working from the legs to the spine, squats give the lower body a beneficial workout whilst burning plenty of calories.
Taking place in a fixed position, squats are an inclusive exercise that any child can master over time.
Favoured for their ability to strengthen our core and our bones whilst toning up the legs and glutes, you’ll soon have staff limbering up on the squat playground marking after school!
2. Jumping
One of the reasons why we have NHS guidelines for children is because contemporary lifestyles are too stationary. Jumping is much more than something we do to mess around.
When we jump, we build muscle strength all the way from our ankles to our glutes meaning both gross and fine motor skills get a great workout.
Helping us to improve our balance and co-ordination, jumping is a simple, versatile, and effective way for children to build body strength.
3. Lunges
Lunges aid the development of better bone and muscle strength which improves our ability to balance and co-ordinate movements seamlessly. Each lunge works the muscles in the lower body, helping us to build stronger muscles from the legs to the lower back.
Once children get to grips with a basic lunge, there are lots of variations you can add such as walking lunges, twist lunges and reverse lunges.
Here’s are some fun ways to use active spot playground markings as a sports or PE activity…
4. Circuit Training
Children love a challenge and this one is achievable for all. The Active Spot Circuit Playground Marking provides a permanent piece of school sports equipment that’s perfect for warm-up exercises.
Warm-ups are a really important part of any activity so the presence of the circuit playground marking helps to ensure every child does warm-up exercises properly at the start of every PE lesson and other sports activities.
The circuit playground marking can also be used for brain breaks and by children themselves at playtime.
Our suggested circuit includes lunges, stretches, star jumps, squats and more but you can swap in and out any of the exercises you choose. The circuit will help children to build co-ordination, balance, strength, and agility.
- Split children into groups of 5 and ask each group to stand behind a different active spot in a line. Each child needs to do 20 reps of the warm-up exercise on the marking then run to the back of the line.
- It should take about a minute and a half for each group to finish. On your whistle each group has to move to the next exercise and repeat the first step.
- Blow your whistle at intervals of about 1 minute and 45 seconds so the whole warm-up activity takes 10-12 minutes to complete.
- If everyone in the group has completed their reps before you blow the whistle, they should continue doing the reps for that exercise in their line.
You can also use the same activity for cool-down exercises.
5. Daily Mile Challenge
Completing the Daily Mile can get boring for some children.
Why not add some variety whilst helping children to build muscle and bone strength by placing active spots at intervals around the playground to create an invigorating warm-up circuit?
The combination of jogging and exercises creates a HIIT-style cardiovascular warm-up activity which increases stamina as well as muscle and bone strength.
- Install a single active spot marking halfway along each side of the playground perimeter.
- When children reach each active spot marking, they need to stop and complete 20 reps of the warm-up exercise displayed on the active spot.
Has that sparked some ideas of your own? See the full collection of active spots to find the perfect markings for warm-ups, cool-down, free play and more.