In order to update how students work out during Physical Education classes, the weight room has recently been updated and reorganized, most visibly with and a new jumbotron.
The changes, including structure and training with new programming, were implemented by PE teacher and track and field pole vault coach Tucker Platt.
“My experience here at OHS has been second to none,” Platt said. “I have been blown away by the things we have been able to accomplish and implement in such a short period of time through working to unify all strength & speed training within the Kinetic Wellness Department.”
Platt, a fifth-year teacher, organized a long-term athletic development plan at his last school, and this is the same plan currently being implemented at OH.
“I’m taking Excel and I think that the changes being made are working very well,” said OH senior Josh Spera. “It’s helping to make kids more athletic while also helping them to prevent injury.”
With freshmen and sophomore classes, new routines have been added. There is a minute timer and students have 45 seconds to do the workout assigned and 15 seconds of rest. There are two sets per exercise. When students finish, they move on to the next exercise, of which there are four.
Not all students are seeing the changes yet. “From what I’ve seen and done, we don’t do a ton of.. different exercises,” said OH freshman Javin Spinks. “It seems to be the same thing most of the time.”
The PE department has also started to use TeamBuildr to program and distribute workouts. TeamBuildr is a software program used to reconfigure the weight room for safety and efficiency, and implement a structured system of long-term athletic development.
“A lot of what we do now is science-based lifting, where before we kind[of] followed our own schedule that we made by ourselves,” said OH senior Steven Barnes. “I miss that a little bit cause I felt like I was getting more out of what I knew and what I did.”
While that individual flexibility may be a thing of the past, the changes to the curriculum appear to be helping students, like Spera.
“I always had a ton of back pain when I lifted heavy, and now I’m able to squat out 255 for ten reps without back pain, while before the updates I was squatting 225,” said Spera.
Howdy! My name is Liam Piekarczyk and I am a first year staff reporter and Photography Editor for 42Fifty. I'm in my senior year of high school. I am involved in the school's cross country, swim and dive, and track and field team. I am also an editor for the 25/26 reflector yearbook staff. You can contact me by emailing 42Fifty@sd308.org and putting my name in the subject line. We welcome comments on our articles and feedback for our publication!
