PE: Qigong

Grade Level:  High School

Objective: Students will learn about qigong while continuing to record their heart rates and reflect on their fitness.

Today we:
-learned about qigong and participated in a number of exercises designed to increase body awareness
-took our resting and active heart rates and recorded the activity we'd done over the weekend
-did some light running up chalet hill
-stretched and did some foot and ankle strengthening exercises
-shot some hoops and practiced our basketball skills

Today Michael, a member of our community, led the first part of physical education.  Michael has spent several years practicing and teaching qigong, a practice of breathing, aligning, meditation, and awareness rooted in Chinese medicine.  Michael began class by talking about the role of chi in martial arts and traditional combat.  He also told us about the "jedi-esq" practice of understanding the body qigong practitioners attain through their effort, awareness, and creativity.

We were immediately interested.  Michael led us in a series of exercises designed to make us more aware of our bodies, releasing tension and increasing consciousness.  Later, when we took our heart rates, all of our resting heart rates were lower than last class period, something we took as a tangible evidence of how calm we felt while Michael was leading us in qigong.

We spent the remainder of our class period continuing the work we'd started last class period.  We recorded in our fitness journal, took resting and active heart rates, stretched, strengthened, and shot hoops.