In-class exercise helps fight childhood obesity while kids learn

A screenshot from the recent video on InPACT.

For the past two years, Project Healthy Schools has collaborated with the U-M schools of kinesiology, public health, education and architecture and urban planning to explore whether incorporating activity breaks in the classroom is an effective strategy to increase metabolic, psychological and cognitive outcomes in children.

The program, called InPACT (Interrupting Prolonged sitting with ACTivity), incorporates five bursts of moderate-to-high-intensity exercise into the class day, for a total of 20 minutes. The InPACT program at Munger Elementary-Middle School in Detroit was recently featured in a U-M Stories of Our State video.

Project Healthy Schools is a Michigan Medicine-community collaboration designed to reduce childhood obesity and improve the current and future health of Michigan’s youth. It is one of only a few school-based programs that have demonstrated significant and lasting improvements in health behavior and cardiovascular risk factors.

Through education and wellness activities, Project Healthy Schools enables middle school students to increase physical activity, eat healthier, and understand how nutrition and activity influence their lifelong health. In addition, once implemented in a school, the program continues year after year, benefiting future generations of students.

For more information about Project Healthy Schools, subscribe to the PHS newsletter which comes out three times a year, or visit www.projecthealthyschools.org.