Rev. Dr. Marcus Allen, the longtime pastor at Mt. Zion Baptist Church on Madison’s South Side, has a teenage son who has played football for years. While running with him one day recently on the football field, inspiration hit him.
“I thought, ‘Hey, maybe there some other kids that want to do the same and get out here and exercise with us.’ Then the next day at [Mt. Zion] church, a kid came up to me and said, ‘Hey, how can I be better at football?’ And I said, ‘You got to make sure your conditioning is right, make sure you got stamina, make sure you can run.'”
With that, Rev. Allen thought it was time to invite all of the young people in the neighborhood and beyond out to run and do conditioning drills to help prepare them for their fall sports seasons in their middle schools and high schools.
“‘Then other adults asked me, ‘Hey, can I come, too?’ and i was like, ‘Yeah, anybody can come,'” Allen says.
The first conditioning session was held Saturday, June 22, at Penn Park and despite the rain, a bunch of young people came out to exercise. The plan is to continue to host the sessions every Saturday at 9 a.m. at Penn Park, and hopefully watch the attendance grow until the final meet-up on July 27. By August, when many of the sporting seasons get underway for students, these youths will be in great shape and will have picked up some good habits.
“So right now, the youth conditioning sessions are open to the kids ages 12-18, but any adults, especially males, are invited to come,” Allen says. “People are free to come just for the fellowship. Of course, we need cardio and exercise to keep our hearts going strong so that we can be able to continue to live on this earth.”
Allen makes it clear that he’s not a professional when it comes to fitness and training but he is “an involved dad.”
“It’s something that evolved out of me just helping my child and being an involved dad. I know that there are a lot of kids out here that don’t have father figures that they can look up to and I wanted to be able to provide that for them, especially the African American community where many of our African American children are growing up without parents in their homes,” Allen says. “So I want to be that positive male role model for them while also helping them try to achieve their goals in sports.
“So I’m passionate about kids, passionate about mentorship, and just having an impact in their lives,” Allen says. “I want my son to be great, and I’m pretty sure parents want their children to be the same, and I just want to provide that outlet for them over the summer, because I don’t know if anything else is open.”
According to experts, young people should be doing at least two types of physical activity each week including aerobic exercise and exercises to strengthen their muscles and bones. Young people should aim for at least 60 minutes of moderate or vigorous intensity physical activity a day across the week.
“Every conditioning session there is gonna be a warm-up, then some form of cardio exercise, either we are running laps around Penn Park or running on the football field. Then we’ll end with core exercises and a cool down,” Allen says. “There’s no sports-type drills, no football drills. None of that. It is all cardio conditioning, trying to get that heart rate up and those lungs ready to endure when they go on the practice field or football field.”
(Photos courtesy of Rev. Allen)
The conditioning sessions will be held every Saturday, rain or shine. Allen not only hopes to get the young people in superior shape for their sports seasons, but to also build some camaraderie and friendships.
“The physical fitness of these meet-ups, of course, is a very important part. That’s the part that’s bringing them together,” Allen says, “but we’re also trying to keep the young people off the street and trying to keep them engaged in something positive during the summer. I think it’s important to just be getting the young people out of the house and over to the park and getting their bodies moving.”
Allen says that they will have water at Penn Park to hydrate the young people along with some type of fruit like watermelon or oranges or bananas.
“We will have all the safety precautions in place, and just being mindful of everything, but we will make sure the kids stay hydrated and make sure they get the cardio that they need,” Allen says.
The next conditioning session will be held on Saturday, June 29, 9 a.m. at Penn Park, 2101 Fisher St. For more information or if you have questions, e-mail Rev. Dr. Marcus Allen at [email protected].
