First-year students improved their fitness by 17% in just six weeks, so how did they do it?
BEATING THE bleep was the task accepted by 9,000 first-year students around Ireland who applied to participate in a national challenge set by RTÉ’s John Murray Show and DCU. In doing so they improved their fitness by 17 per cent. But, how the bleep did they do it?
For those of you who haven’t endured it, the Bleep Test is a fitness challenge which sees participants run back and forth between two points, set 20 metres apart, before a bleep sounds. Although it starts slowly, the time between each bleep shortens as the test reaches each higher level. If participants don’t reach the end point before the bleep, they are out. But the more often participants can beat the bleep (which in the test’s terms is called a shuffle), the higher their score.
The challenge piqued the interest of Niall Moyna, professor in the School of Health and Human Performance in DCU, who recognised that the test had potential to be used as a national fitness test after an Athlone school used it as part of a six-week fitness challenge for the RTÉ show Operation Transformation.
“We saw an enormous improvement not just in their physical but also their mental health and well being,” Mr Moyna said. This got the ball rolling. Could his team extend this challenge to first years around Ireland and, in doing so, set in train what could be life-changing healthy habits in the longer term?
Mr Moyna, who is an exercise physiologist and researcher in cardiovascular disease and genetics, explained that the earlier a child is exposed to risk factors such as inactivity, obesity, smoking, high levels of bad cholesterol, high blood pressure and high levels of blood sugar, the higher the likelihood is that they will develop heart disease.
“But because these are modifiable risk factors my view is that if you take an individual and you get them aerobically fit at an early age, the likelihood of that individual having these risk factors is virtually zero,” he said, adding that this had the potential to cut billions of euro off healthcare costs in the future.
“We initiated a challenge to see which first-year class could improve their fitness the most in six weeks. The people I was really trying to get at were the bottom 25 per cent. The boys and girls who were already fit weren’t going to see a big improvement but those who were less active would see an enormous improvement,” he explained.
He approached the John Murray Show, who put out a call on the airwaves for first-year classes to take the test. Mr Moyna thought he might get 600-1,000 kids to take part in the challenge. But within a three-week period 9,000 first years representing almost every county in Ireland had signed up.
The results were astounding. Just six weeks after the test began the participating students had increased their fitness levels by 17 per cent and are now among the fittest in their age category in Europe.
Ciarán Murphy, a PE teacher in St Patrick’s Classical School in Navan, whose 1C boys class was one of three classes who most improved their fitness over the course of the challenge, said it was the perfect “shot in the arm” to encourage the first years who are taught by himself and fellow PE teacher Kevin Hourihane.
“[The pupils’] health is so important and some of them don’t seem to realise it . . . They need to be more active and if this is the shot in the arm they need to go off and do it then so be it. Their health is the most important thing,” Mr Murphy said.
The boys, along with the top girl’s class from St Mary’s Convent of Mercy in Mallow, Co Cork who ran an average of over 29 shuttle runs more than in their first test and a mixed class from Wilson’s Hospital School in Westmeath, who ran an average of 28 more runs than when they began, all won a three-day sports summer camp trip while their schools received a trophy and €1,000 towards the PE department.
The three classes were also treated to a meeting with the ever-energetic Jedward, who are avid athletes themselves.
And, this is not the end of the road. Anne McAteer, health promotion officer with the HSE in Donegal, heard about the initiative on the radio. However, by the time some of the schools responded to the Donegal Sports Partnership’s call to join the competition, some had missed the deadline. So the partnership set up its own challenge and, for an incentive for the schools to take part, it set up a €500 prize fund for schools in the area and a day out for the class in Gartan outdoor pursuits centre for the top three teams.
“The PE teachers have seen their students embrace the idea. They’re cycling, they’re running in their own time as well as the activities during school time,” Ms McAteer said. While it is still unclear whether the national challenge will take place next year, she said they will definitely be running the initiative again in Donegal.