How to Do Physical Education Online

August 5, 2022 byConnections Academy

5 min to read

Connections Academy student working on physical education.

The benefits of a virtual PE class extend well beyond meeting school requirements. Playing active games, doing exercises, and participating in sports for a total of 60 minutes a day can contribute to better grades and build a foundation for a lifetime of healthy habits and overall well-being. But can you take PE online in high school? The answer is a resounding yes! In fact, online students can start taking PE in elementary school. And the best part: It doesn’t necessarily take a lot of money, special equipment, or gym memberships to get kids fired up about physical education. A ball, a bike, online exercise and yoga videos, music that sets bodies in motion, a jump rope, sneakers, and even an empty field can be all you need to meet the Society of Health and Physical Educators® (SHAPE) National Physical Education Standards.

From elementary grades through high school, the benefits of regular physical activity include building stronger muscles and bones, maintaining healthy weight, increasing heart and lung efficiency, sharpening thinking skills, relieving stress and anxiety, and getting a good night’s sleep.

How Do Online PE Classes Work?

The flexibility to set their daily, weekly, and semester schedules enables online students to develop a fitness plan that complements the e-text PE curriculum by doing pretty much anything they want to do.

Physical fitness is a journey, not a destination. Each stage of the journey builds on the previous, and the path can start anywhere and proceed in any direction depending on students’ interests and abilities.

Online PE for Elementary School

In their early years, children start refining their movement, balance, and coordination skills. By age 6, the typical youngster can hit a pitch and accurately pass a soccer or basketball. Other physical activities that develop age-critical skills may include:

Yoga – Yoga is a restorative practice that builds a foundation for more vigorous styles. Yoga is calming and ideal for stretching and building flexibility.
Tumbling – Kids learn the movement, balance, and coordination that are the foundation for intermediate and advanced gymnastics. Plus, it’s fun!
Bicycle riding – Letting kids peddle away not only builds the primary developmental skills for the age group, but also promotes confidence, independence, and socialization.

Remember, students go through intermittent growth spurts. Rotating activities regularly can help avoid overuse injuries and burnout.

Online PE for Middle School

Locomotor skills—the ability to move the body efficiently to get from one place to another—come into focus during the middle school years. Physical education activities that sharpen that ability include:

Running – Short triathlons and races expand cardiovascular capacity and endurance.
Vertical leap – Repetitive jumping exercises involve short, powerful, lower body movements that strengthen the muscles that produce speed, agility, and quickness.
Skipping/Jumping rope – Anything from schoolyard double dutch to athletes’ speed rope workouts improves cardio endurance, builds coordination, and burns fat.

Kids also start honing their hand-eye coordination in their tweens, and Harvard Medical School suggests these lifetime activities to develop, strengthen, and maintain that critical skill:

Racket sports – Eyes watch the ball, the brain coordinates the feet, arms and hands respond.
Swimming – You can’t see the parts of the body that get you through the water, so the brain has to visualize them in the mind’s eye to keep everything in synch.
Tai chi – Moving body weight from one foot to another while shifting from posture to posture and breathing deeply enhances balance, strength, flexibility, and range of motion.

A group of high-school students running track.

Online PE for High School

By the time students reach their teen years, they are ready to add strength training to their fitness plan. Before picking up barbells, dumbbells, or kettlebells, though, get a coach or follow videos on resistance-training programs. There’s no need to enroll in gym memberships or purchase expensive weights; . body weight exercises are every bit as effective at building muscle, strengthening bones, and burning fat as traditional gym equipment.

Bench step up – A simple, four-step exercise that is ideal for building upper leg strength and balance. Do as many as you want—or can.
Burpees – From beginner to advanced, this total-body exercise builds upper, core, and lower strength and endurance while burning fat.
Planks – Build core strength and muscle endurance couldn’t be any simpler—and sometimes challenging.

What Are Other Benefits of Virtual PE Class Activities?

Online PE Has the Potential to Help Improve Grades

The science on the connection between exercise and academic achievement is mixed. Some research has found that higher achievers are physically active but stops short of saying the activity led to the achievement.

Other studies, however, found that students became less proficient at their studies as fitness levels declined through middle grades. On the other hand, students whose fitness improved during the research period also posted better grades. Regular exercise also promotes healthy sleep habits, and growing kids need good sleep so they can stay awake while studying.

Online PE Supports Brain and Mental Health

Exercise increases the heart rate, which increases oxygen-rich blood flow to the brain. It releases hormones that promote feelings of well-being, sometimes called the runner’s high or yoga calm, and suppresses the release of hormones that are connected with anxiety and depression. Physical activity also promotes the development of new neural pathways, which is vital for young people. The human brain is in a constant state of growth throughout the school years and possibly into a person’s 20s.

Online PE for Students Is the First Step to Healthy Adulthood

Making physical activity a habit during the school years provides the foundation for a lifetime of fitness and good health. Learning how to manage weight early in life can make it easier to manage it later, which is a factor in avoiding chronic conditions such as Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, depression and anxiety, weak bones and muscles, and other disorders that diminish quality of life. By personalizing your child’s day and adding virtual PE classes to it, they can participate in more extracurricular activities, explore their passions, and even invest the time needed to train and compete at the highest level. Take a look at some sample virtual school schedules for inspiration in designing your child’s day.