problem
it’s bigger than an epidemic it’s a
pandemic and it’s that we don’t move
anymore as modern society has evolved
physical activity has been engineered
out of our everyday lives whether it’s
transportation we drive everywhere
schools we prioritize academics over
physical and mental health or
electronics we are on our phones 24/7
it’s like digital heroin and the
increase of prescription drugs physical
inactivity is now the fourth leading
risk factor for global mortality it
kills more people than smoking 5.3
million people per year sitting is the
new smoking
and sadly right now it is projected that
our children’s life expectancy is going
to be shorter than ours that’s not right
we’ve created this we have to change
this so we know that exercise is
medicine we know that the minute we
start to move neurogenesis happens we
start to release wonderful
neurotransmitters serotonin dopamine
Naropa nephron that allow lots of
wonderful things to happen to us it
helps our confidence
it helps depression it helps anxiety
and I’m gonna prove it to you because we
have to walk the walk right so before I
tell you my story I’m actually going to
ask you to stand up if you can’t stand
up you can stay in your seat so I love
this this is like a large PE class so
can we just do this for all eight
minutes I think I’d get kicked off stage
so so what we’re gonna do is to bodice
which is 20 seconds on 10 seconds off
it’s one of the most efficient ways to
exercise you could just squat setups
whatever it for us we’re gonna do fast
feet today typically you do 8 rounds but
we don’t have that much time so I’m
gonna spare you and we’re only going to
do two rounds 20 seconds on 10 seconds
off and we’re gonna do fast feet okay so
ready 20 seconds on your mark get set go
I’m looking at the clock and I know that
those neurotransmitters are getting
released I know endorphins are being
released come on wave your hands
high-five your neighbor all right 20
seconds stop okay note sit down just yet
but look at I actually see lots of
giggles I see lots of smiles so you can
exercise anywhere you can exercise when
you’re cooking that your dust anything
all right ready another 20 seconds
faster faster air and I see you a high
five rich all right come on Eric I turn
around in your seat I kept on thinking
you gotta go faster all right you can
stop now you can sit if is that to me we
do that the whole 10 minutes
raise your hand if you have a smile on
your face and you feel more alert now I
don’t see any unraised hands if I do you
should get up and move more so now I
will tell you my story
so in 2008 after 18 years in a corporate
real estate career I had a cancer scare
I had two young kids at home so I
decided I was going to be a stay-at-home
mom that stay-at-home stint it lasted
for about two maybe three weeks I just
had ants in my pants and I came across
dr. Rainey’s book dr. ray DS professor
of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School
who talks about the profound impact that
exercise has on all of us that if you
exercise for 15 to 20 minutes it’s like
taking a little prozac or Ritalin and I
thought well if we know that and the
science is there why are we not letting
kids run around before or during school
sadly we’ve taken PE away Pete most
schools have peed once maybe twice a
week and we even take away recess at
some points and we make them sit for six
to eight hours and not only do we have
an obesity epidemic even worse we have a
mental health crisis our mental health
crisis is so bad right now that one in
five children suffer from some
debilitating mental health issue and we
know movement would make them happier so
with this knowledge and with a little
passion and determination because I just
have a little and some parent volunteers
I went to our local principal and
superintendent and asked for permission
to run a before school physical activity
program because we knew they’d do better
in school we got their blessing we sent
an email out to the entire school
population said if you want to drop your
kids off an hour before school to run
around and play evidence shows they’ll
be happier and healthier we had 80 kids
sign up in two weeks I had no idea what
I was doing
so I said to some of my friends what are
we gonna do put some whistles on her
next run around and play so of course we
had 80 kids it was free daycare and it
was a healthy free daycare and parents
could get to work early so we had kids
dropped off and we were running around
complain and then within a couple weeks
the emails we were getting from parents
and teachers were unbelievable like my
kids are so excited now to go to school
even early and they’re sleeping better
the teachers are reporting they actually
can focus in class
and then what I call word of mom started
to spread and other communities reached
out to us for a copy of our curriculum
and that’s when I had the aha moment
that maybe we’re onto something here and
maybe we need to create a curriculum
that allows parents teachers community
members to be part of this solution part
of the physical inactivity solution so
we created a curriculum we called it box
which was 45 minutes a day right before
school three days a week
it included functional fitness movements
relay races obstacle courses 400 meter
runs and nutrition and at the time my
hope was you know what if this is a big
success here maybe we can use it in the
four other schools in the district and
even use it in you know surrounding
neighborhoods little did I know that
you’d fast forward to 2017 were well
beyond the five schools we’re in 2230
I gotta I can’t be get emotional today
okay so this is because it’s needed it’s
necessary we see it we have the
scientific evidence and the personal
stories the scientific evidence right
we had NIOSH National Institute on
out-of-school time track 560 kids that
were in box it showed that after
participating in box their working
memory and their executive functioning
significantly increased so kids need to
move they also improve their running
time and new nutritional knowledge and
then we in a separate study we surveyed
2,000 children in inner-city schools and
asked them if they wanted to come back
to the second session a box so a second
12-week session come an hour before
school and exercise do you know what
percent wanted to come back 90 percent
okay guys 90 percent of kids want to
come an hour before school and exercise
it’s their right it’s our responsibility
to give this to them and even more so
it’s the personal stories that really
motivate me and those of us around that
keep us going so Suzie a little girl the
first few the first year of our program
her mother called me and said Suzy’s not
a jock she doesn’t like to participate
in sports she spends she visits the
school nurse almost every day my father
my husband and I are going through a
divorce and she’s having a rough time
and she’s overweight so drop her off
we’ll get her to love it first few weeks
Suzy didn’t participate couldn’t run the
400 meters was not happy within a few
weeks Suzy was running the 400 meters
with a huge smile on her face
the school nurse was reporting that she
no longer visited the nurse’s office
her mom was telling me for the first
time in months she was sleeping through
the night and excited to go go to school
and she had a whole new confidence to
her
so here we gave a child who probably
would have never thought of herself as a
jack
we gave her confidence and then another
example it’s Jess so jess that’s a
trainer so the cool side effect of box
has been empowering everyday people to
be champions of change jess is just like
me an ordinary person but she’s doing
extraordinary things and this is a quote
from Jess so when I was first told about
her program and somebody told me to go
visit her program they said wait to see
Jess she’s unbelievable trainer she’s
got 50 kids moving she’s so inspiring so
in my mind I thought I was going to show
up and see this really buff trainer I
walked through the door and I see Jess
250 plus pounds and I think what and
then shame on me she put me to shame
she ran that 400 meters with those kids
with huge smiles on their face and had
them completely inspired so see it
doesn’t take somebody who’s a superhero
and I’ll tell you the sportiness of good
answers industry will tell you that they
have partially failed to they have
created this idea of superheroes and
athletes we’ve created in this country a
culture of spectators we have to reverse
that we have to create a culture of
participants and there’s no better way
than to start with our youth we know
that youth learn habits by AJ so it’s
critical that we allow them and give
them the opportunities to move just like
other major revolutions the seatbelt
campaign the smoking campaign it started
with the kids the good news is we had
success with both and I believe we can
have success with this – we know the
sport and fitness has the power to
change lives we can do it together I’m
asking you to join the fitness
revolution don’ts estill let’s
revolutionize our kids lives and bring
Fitness back to schools and home life
thank you
[Applause] [Music]