Social media has become a powerful tool in the world of education. It allows teachers to ask questions, get answers, and share best practices.
But if you are like most people, it can be hard to sift through all the posts and pages out there. Especially in the world of fitness, physical education, and athletics!
Look no further than Milwaukee Lutheran High School (MLHS) in Wisconsin. Over the last few years, the Red Knight Strength account has shared an inside look of the weight room, gymnasium, and field.
We sat down for a quick Q+A with Kyle Barth, PE teacher and coach, and the person behind the MLHS Instagram account. He shared his experience over the last few years working with students and using PLT4M. Check it out!
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Milwaukee Lutheran High School Mission
Doug Curtin
PLT4M Director of Content
As a physical education/athletics program describe your goal or overall mission of your strength and conditioning program? Why do you do what you do?
As a physical education department, we wanted to create a more robust course offering for our students. Give them more variety and opportunities to achieve some level of physical fitness. PLT4M has done a tremendous job creating a wide variety of programs that can be used with many different types of students.
As an athletic department we’ve made a big push for our student-athletes to take a weight training class during the school day. Getting more kids in the weight room during the day eliminates reasons for not coming to after-school training sessions and it also takes some of the pressure off coaches to get their teams in the weight room during practice time throughout their seasons. We’re working hard to make off-season and in-season training a priority for our student-athletes.
As coaches and adults, we understand the importance of quality strength, speed, agility, plyometric, etc. training over the course of a preseason, in-season, and off-season, and our student-athletes are slowly starting to see returns on the investments they are making in their overall health and performance, and it is creating more buy-in.
PLT4M in Action at MLHS
Doug Curtin
PLT4M Director of Content
What was the reason you signed up and started using PLT4M? What was the goal of using PLT4M with your students?
Kyle Barth
Physical Education Teacher
As a department we needed something that would revitalize and streamline our strength & conditioning efforts.
PLT4M has given us the technology to do that without costing us an arm and a leg. Students can easily get the information they need to have an effective training session just by opening the app on their phones.
It also makes my job as a teacher and coach easier. Students who may have questions throughout a class period or training session can first turn to their app and watch a video or read a description. I can focus my time and attention on students who may need more help with a movement and not feel bombarded by questions.
PLT4M gives experienced and motivated students an avenue to be independent.
Doug Curtin
PLT4M Director of Content
Over the last few years of using PLT4M, what has helped the most for you as a teacher/coach using the program?
Kyle Barth
Physical Education Teacher
The efficiency of being able to distribute training programs complete with weights used, percentages of 1RM, customized descriptions or notes, etc. for many different groups of kids or teams has been a blessing.
Students and coaches alike can access everything they need to work through a training session.
PLT4M also gave students the ability to stay on track with their fitness or training during the months we were shutdown due to COVID. As a teacher I could send out information in conjunction with our learning management system at school and students could complete at-home training sessions.
I also can’t say enough about the work the people at PLT4M have put into creating a wide variety of content. A lot of students love to weight train, but there also many students that love yoga, dance, bodyweight training, etc. PLT4M offers a wide variety of content that can be used to appease all types of students.
Doug Curtin
PLT4M Director of Content
What have you seen your students benefit the most from using PLT4M?
Kyle Barth
Physical Education Teacher
Progress! The ability to see a graph that shows progress of weight lifted in a certain movement gets kids excited. Whether it’s over the course of a semester or a few years kids love bragging about the progress they’ve made and that’s cool to see.
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Technology in Physical Education
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Doug Curtin
PLT4M Director of Content
If you could describe PLT4M to someone else, what would you tell a friend?
Kyle Barth
Physical Education Teacher
PLT4M has done a tremendous job developing content and continuing to update their product. What was once a program focused on weight training has now become a tool that can be used with any student group.
Students can experience high quality coaching and programming in a wide range of fitness topics. I have a background in strength training, but I can’t coach yoga or dance, and PLT4M gives our students the opportunity to experience that at a high level.
PLT4M has also streamlined our training for our student-athletes. They can follow quality training programs with ease. I can also customize programs to fit the needs of our space, availability of equipment, and student needs.
We have been using PLT4M for more than a few years and it has become a major part of our curriculum and athletic department.
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