Corona School’s fitness centre thrills students, parents

The need for parents, teachers and staff of Corona Secondary School (CSS), Agbara, to imbibe healthy lifestyles by eating healthy diets, observing regular exercises, and going for regular medical checkups were the hub of discuss at the maiden edition of the school’s ‘Health and Fitness Week’, organised recently at the school premises. The school also unveiled a new fitness centre for teachers and staffs

The ‘Health and Fitness Week’ was attended and observed by parents, staff and students of the school. The occasion was used to open a

The one week long event, which kicked off October 6 had both internal and external fitness trainers taking participants through a set of routine aerobic exercises on the open field of the school.

Speaking on the occasion, the Principal CSS Agbara, Mrs. Chinedum Oluwadamilola, said: “Health is paramount. We at Corona want children to do well in their examinations, as well as we want them to grow up as responsible adult in a healthy body.

Speaking further, she said: “Exercise and fitness have been known to pump oxygen into the brain so that brain cells can function very well, and it is also good to start having healthy feeding habits, regular exercise, very early in life.

“And, there is no better way to start it than in school. This shouldn’t be confused with sports, because it is not about sports, it is just to exercise the body, and that is important to us. When we were young, we played outside. In today’s world, and with children from certain economic demographics, they stay indoors, get out from an air-conditioned home into an air-conditioned car, and hardly do any physical exercise. None of them is trekking to school, or trekking to market or running errands by just walking a distance. It is not just the children from higher economic demographics. When we were young, there were no tricycles and motorcycles.

“Hence, not only are we promoting it, we want it to be a culture, and this culture should be also from home that is why we are involving the parents. You can see that they came in their fitness attire, and we urged them to bring healthier options of meal, which they all did. And as you know, a healthy body would beget a healthy mind. Academics have to do with the mind, and if the body is weak, sluggish, deceased in some cases, a child isn’t going to be able to do anything.

Speaking on the importance of exercise, Oluwadamilola said: “Exercise helps with sleep. Going to bed and not being able to sleep, a child is not going to get to class the next morning and be able to listen, study, or assimilate properly. So, we expect a habit of exercise on a daily basis would improve sleep which is proven by research, and that would transform to the child’s brain, by making him able to assimilate properly and being at alert.

“This exercise, though our maiden, would be hence be held every term and will be incorporated in all the three terms. She advised parents to integrate it as part of their children’s’ route outside the school premises.