Royster girls are finding how hard they need to work to make a change in their physical fitness and that they CAN DO IT!

Physical Education teacher Rexine Spencer is measuring her girls’ heart rates once a week during physical activities and assessing whether they are keeping their heart rates in the target zone of 90 percent or better. If the girls can do that for five weeks in the last nine-week quarter of the school year, they earn a “Get Fit” t-shirt.

One week they may be playing dodge ball, walking or jogging outside and the next they may be jumping rope, doing step aerobics, jogging, walking or shooting baskets inside.

“What I’m trying to do is teach them that no matter what aerobic activity they’re doing that all they have to do is stay within their target heart rate zone and that will increase their cardiovascular endurance which means their heart and lungs are working efficiently together which means they’re getting healthier,” Spencer said.

Offering the t-shirts as an incentive appears to be working.

By the fifth week, Spencer had 12 seventh and 12 eighth graders, about 15 percent of each class, who’d qualified for a tee. With three weeks left in the school year, she expects a large number to earn a shirt.

“I have several who just need one more” 90 percent heart rate to qualify, she said.