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Whole body strengthening activity

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I have many students that need to work on whole body strengthening, and what better way to do that is to have an activity that gets several muscle groups throughout the activity. I wanted an activity that would work on legs, core, and arms at the same time. You can change the intensity of the strengthening by changing the weight of the item that is used. For some kids we use a simple ball, but you could use anything that you have available such as a towel, water bottle, pillow, or weighted ball. For discussion purposes, I am going to just use a ball as our object.

This activity works best with 2 to 4 people doing it together. You start in a circle and one person has the ball at their feet in front of them. It is important to use good form during this exercise so that you are strengthening the right muscles. The person with the ball does a squat, picks up the ball, lifts it over their head, and then tosses the ball to one of the other people. The person who just caught the ball holds it, does a squat, then stands with the ball and lifts it over their head, then tosses it to one of the other people.

You can modify the activity to have the person with the ball hand the ball across their body to the person next to them in order to work in some cross body coordination. You also change the amount of muscle used by changing how much weight the “ball” has. The ball that we used in the pictures is a 6 pound ball. You could use a bag of bean bags or other items to add some weight.

Exercise cards

I was sent some exercise cards to try out that were created by FusionWeb, which is an electronic medical records site. They also have a portion of their site that has home programs.

The cards use illustrations from the FusionWeb Home Education Platform, which is an add-on to their existing EMR. It allows Fusion users to create compliant home exercise programs using their own exercises and Fusion’s growing library of professionally illustrated, pediatric activities.
So therapists are able to take the resources they get from Therapy Fun Zone or other places and upload them to Fusion’s HEP. Then they can assign certain exercises and activities to patients so that patients and their caregivers can access them from the patient portal.

Give Away

FusionWeb sent me some extra sets of cards, so I will be giving away 4 sets. All you have to do is post anything in the comments and I will pick the winners randomly. Update: The winners have been chosen and contacted.

Here are some links:

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18 Comments

  1. I love getting the weekly emails. There are always great therapy ideas that are easily incorporated in a school setting.

  2. Thanks so much for this user friendly, fun exercise for a group with minimal equipment.

  3. Love these cards! Great way to empower the children and young people also!

  4. I love these cards! Card decks are so easy to use when traveling from place to place. My favorite go to activities!

  5. I have just discovered your website – three hours later I’m still enjoying learning more great activities for sensory circuits with my class. These cards would be a great support.

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