Special Olympics Iowa encourages athletes to pursue fitness outside of their competitive sports! Incorporating physical activity along with proper nutrition and hydration into your daily routine is important for preventing injury, achieving new personal bests, and maintaining overall optimal health. Special Olympics Iowa fitness programming empowers athletes and their supporters to take charge of their own health and fitness by providing the necessary education, social support, opportunities, and tracking of progress. Let’s get fit!
Information for Fitness Fest 2022 coming soon!
Lead Up Fitness Challenge
This challenge will prepare athletes, Unified partners and coaches for upcoming competitions by focusing on getting one million steps in 20 weeks. The challenge will utilize a brand new Special Olympics fitness app, SO FitNow. This app (also available in website form) will sync to most step tracking devices, including Fitbits and Apple watches. It also has a manual feature where you can report on walking as well as convert other exercise activities to count towards steps. This means you can get steps for things like swimming, dancing, online workout videos, and more. Plus, the app will keep you updated on your road to 1 million! There will also be Fit 5 exercise videos and Strong Minds meditations for access right within the app/website. Let’s STEP it into gear and return stronger than ever!
Fit 5
Fit 5 is a fitness initiative based on the three simple goals of exercising 5 days per week, eating 5 total fruits and vegetables per day and drinking 5 water bottles of water per day. The Fit 5 cards and guide were designed to be utilized with flexibility, giving programs the opportunity to integrate and implement the resources in a way that aligns with their current goals and objectives.
School of Strength
School of Strength is a fun, engaging workout video series that features WWE Superstar Becky Lynch, as well as Special Olympics athletes from across the country. The workout series is made up of four videos that focus on strength, balance and endurance. Video one is a great way to start things off before jumping into the harder workouts. The difficulty of the exercises increases in videos two through four, see if you can work your way up to the “Master Trainer” level.
Video 1: Welcome and Warm-Up
Video 2: Ignite Your Endurance
Video 3: Getting Schooled on Strength
Video 4: Boost Your Balance
To use this resource as a full fitness program, be sure to use the supplemental Caregiver’s Kit and Coach’s Playbook. The Caregiver’s Kit gives fun nutrition tips and tricks that will encourage your athlete to begin making healthy choices on their own. The Coach’s Playbook provides insight on how to make workouts fun and a list of exercises athletes can do on their own.
Caregiver’s Kit
Coach’s Playbook
Health and Fitness Tracker
Setting both long-term and short-term goals is important! It helps keep us moving forward and striving to reach our full potential. Use the below downloadable health and fitness tracker to check off daily health and fitness wins and keep yourself accountable throughout the week.
Have you earned a Fitbit Inspire HR through SOIA fitness programming and need assistance setting up or using the device? Click on the link below for step-by-step instructions on everything from unboxing your Fitbit to using the Fitbit app.
Fitbit Inspire HR instructions
8-Week Fitness Challenge
Special Olympics Iowa challenges teams to incorporate the Fit 5 program into their schedules with the 8-Week Fitness Challenge! This challenge includes a Fitness Lifestyle Pre-Assessment, 6 weeks of exercise and nutrition lessons, and a Fitness Lifestyle Post-Assessment. Weekly challenges and fitness tracking devices provide for an opportunity to win prizes for building healthy lifestyle habits! This program can be incorporated in many ways, including quick 15 minute sessions during weekly Special Olympics sports practices. All resources will be provided and lessons can be customized to fit the need of specific groups and individuals. Direct any Fitness Challenge questions or registration inquiries to jlowe@soiowa.org.
For more information about Special Olympics Iowa Fitness programs, contact:
Jerry Lowe, Community Programs Coordinator.