Modifying Middle School Physical Education: Piloting Strategies to Increase Physical Activity

Two pilot studies were conducted to examine whether 6th grade students can achieve moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) from 1) activity-based physical education (AB-PE) with 585 participants and 2) a curricular-based (CB-PE) program with 1,544 participants and randomly sampled heart rates during lessons. AB-PE participants spent between 54-66% with a heart rate >140 bpm. CB-PE participants spent between 49-58% with a heart rate >140 bpm. Girls' mean heart rate was 3.7 bpm lower than the boys. PE can be readily modified so that students spend more than 50% of time in MVPA.