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funtervals are a series of very brief (four-minute) in-class exercise activities. these activities were adapted from high-intensity interval training and allows participants to achieve health benefits comparable to those gained by performing an hour of traditional endurance training. funtervals involve 20 seconds of activity followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated for eight intervals. to make these high-intensity activities more appealing to children, actions that involve the child’s whole body — such as squatting, jumping, and running — complement fun, interactive storylines. for example, instead of instructing students to do a squat and press, teachers tell children to reach for an imaginary top shelf to grab a bag of popcorn and placing the bag in a giant bowl on the ground to make popcorn for the entire school.
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jasmin ma and brendon j. gurd are with the school of kinesiology and health studies at queen’s university, kingston, ontario, and lucy le mare is with the faculty of education, simon fraser university, burnaby, british columbia. this article summarizes the study ma, j.k., mare, l. le, and gurd, b.j. 2015. four minutes of in-class high-intensity interval activity improves selective attention in 9—11 year olds. applied physiology, nutrition and metabolism 40(3): 238-244. https://doi.org/10.1139/apnm-2014-0309 . this summary was written for the canadian society for exercise physiology and has been reviewed by the csep knowledge translation committee.
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