This is fitness, Bears style
Chicago Bears Brendon Ayanbadejo and Ricky Manning Jr. stopped by Lincoln Middle School in Mount Prospect recently to get the whole student body exercising.
It was part of a program through the American Heart Association designed to combat childhood obesity called What Moves U.
The two Bears led more than 700 students, who were all dressed in orange and white "What Moves U" T-shirts, through a series of warm-up exercises and trivia games about nutrition.
Manning did one-handed push-ups to get the kids going before the pair went through a series of exercises with the kids, including sit-ups, squats and running in place.
"We are all doing 20 squats and if everyone is not counting, then were are going to do it all over again," Ayanbadejo teased the kids at the all-school assembly outside.
The kids also participated in a game called Rapid Fire: True or False.
The kids were given pieces of paper with a 'T' and 'F' on each side. They were asked a series of nutrition questions to which they had to hold up one side of the paper, depending on what they thought the answer was. If they got it wrong, they had to sit down.
According to the American Heart Association, rates of child obesity are higher than they've ever been. Twice at many children and three times as many teens are overweight as they were in 1980.
Obesity leads to problems in adulthood, including high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol.
What Moves U attempts to address the problems with overweight kids by talking about exercise and nutrition.
For more information, log onto www.whatmovesu.com.