Personal Fitness MB 12 week program

[chemyst 10]

A 12 week personal fitness program is required in requirements 7 and 8. Must these be 12 consecutive weeks? If a Scout stops his program, must he start over or can he pick up where he left off?

 

For example, a Scout worked his program for 4 weeks and stopped. Does he have to start his 12 weeks over again or just work his program for another 8 weeks?

[dg98adams 18]

Are you asking as a Merit Badge Counselor and Parent or not?

 

The reason I ask, is that's the only people that can make the call.

 

To complete Req. #7 and #8 as long as the program spans 12 weeks, and is APPROVED by the COUNSELOR/PARENTS any stops/starts would become integral to the analyzed portion and could possibly effect the meaning and benefit of said program and mark no improvement (which reads to be show improvement), but IMO there is nothing there that says it invalidates it or the Scout must do it consecutively.

 

 

For reference only....

#7 Outline a comprehensive 12-week physical fitness program using the results of your fitness tests. Be sure your program incorporates the endurance, intensity, and warm-up guidelines discussed in the Personal Fitness merit badge pamphlet. Before beginning your exercises, have the program approved by your counselor and parents.

 

#8 Complete the physical fitness program you outlined in requirement 7. Keep a log of your fitness program activity (how long you exercised; how far you ran, swam, or biked; how many exercise repetitions you completed; your exercise heart rate; etc.). Repeat the aerobic fitness, muscular strength, and flexibility tests every two weeks and record your results. After the 12th week, repeat all four tests, record your results, and show improvement in each one. Compare and analyze your preprogram and postprogram body composition measurements. Discuss the meaning and benefit of your experience, and describe your long-term plans regarding your personal fitness.

[jhankins 10]

It's up to the boy, the counselor and his parent. My son is a Lone Scout. For his Tenderfoot 30 day requirement, he missed a few days. When I asked him how it was going, he said he'd missed a few days and wanted to start it over because he didn't "do his best."

 

With that attitude, the boy may realize he should work on it 12 straight weeks, or may think he's done his best even missing a few days.

 

 

[Beavah 205]

Second MB requirement question from yeh, chemyst. Is somethin' up?

 

I don't counsel Personal Fitness, but I think da point of the requirement is to develop an ongoing program and to see it through. That to me is how to build the lad's character in terms of developing lifelong habits of fitness. Binge exercise for a few weeks followed by quitting followed by another binge exercise of a few weeks is a lot like da folks who go on binge diets, eh? Neither productive nor healthy.

 

So if that's what the lad did - worked for 3-4 weeks then quit for months (allowin' his fitness level to drop), I'd say he'd have to start over and do a full continuous 12 weeks in order to learn what we want him to learn in Scouting.

 

If he just missed a day or two, or a week while he was sick, that's a mule of a different color, though. For some exercise like weights/pullups/pushups/etc., rest/recovery periods are necessary for growth and are proper to include in a 12-week program. There should be off days and cross-training days., eh?

 

Again, this is ultimately up to the merit badge counselor, based on his/her experience and honor. The counselor should mentor the lad appropriately so that he learns and grows from workin' on the badge, not just ticks off weeks here and there.

 

Beavah