Creating a Scalable Physical Activity Breaks Resource Through the Multisensory Multilevel Health Education Model: H.Y.P.E. The Breaks!

Abstract

Physically active children have lower rates of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and depression than their inactive counterparts, and further evidence suggests that integrating physical activity breaks into the school day improves children’s classroom behavior, fitness, and cognitive functions. The current article focuses on the development and implementation of free, scalable, short activity breaks called H.Y.P.E. The Breaks! (Helping Young People Energize)—a series of 2-, 6-, and 10-minute-long dance and hip-hop–based physical activity videos, which can be used in the classroom or at home. H.Y.P.E. The Breaks! is deconstructed through the lens of the multisensory multilevel health education model, which leverages art, culture, and science in the design and implementation of health programs, and highlights the importance of framing and operationalizing program components across the different behavioral levels of influence of the socioecological model. The article also discusses the uptake of H.Y.P.E. The Breaks! during the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic, when major declines in children’s physical activity were observed.