Dodgeball, basketball and volleyball have disappeared from Mark Gartner's gym class at Hampton Middle School.
Instead, students climb ropes, lift dumbbells and run laps around the gym -- all with heart rate monitors.
"This class is better than it was last year," said seventh-grader Ryan Marre, 12, whose heart was beating at a rate of 132 beats per minute just after class.
Hampton has largely scrapped the traditional fare of gym class in favor of more individual fitness. Schools across the state are making similar changes -- about half of rural districts and more than half in heavily populated areas such as Allegheny County, according to Dave Lorenzi, an assistant professor of health physical education and sports and Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
"Even districts that have not done anything with these new programs are at least thinking about it," Lorenzi said. "All physical educators know about these trends."
The shift mirrors a growing belief that competition should be largely removed from phys-ed classes, except for those who want it, and that lifelong exercise and fitness habits should be emphasized.
"Students do not want to play basketball three times a week from elementary school through high school, especially students who are not good at it," Lorenzi said. "If you are not a good basketball player but are required to do it every year in PE, no wonder you hate it."
Other districts instituting changes include Canon McMillan, which has started an elective dance class as part of its physical education program.
"Dance is great exercise, even though it is not conventionally thought of that way," Lorenzi said. "And dance class may not attract the same crowd that basketball does."
Penn-Trafford in Westmoreland County has had success with elective classes that combine martial arts, aerobic exercise and weightlifting.
"It has been a wonderful change, and many students seem to like it," said Assistant Superintendent Harry Smith. "A lot of phys-ed was team sports -- that's why some students did not like it."
The district plans to offer more electives in the next year or so, Smith said.
At North Allegheny, students have gone fly fishing, rock climbing and routinely ride mountain bikes on trails around the district's intermediate high school. Last week, students participated in a duathalon -- part running and part biking on trails -- during the school day.
"They show us how to do stuff that we can do on out own time," said sophomore Kathleen Noel, 15.
Noel's instructor, Dave Schmidt, was named teacher of the year in 2004 by the Pennsylvania State Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.
"We have changed the program to lifetime sports," Schmidt said "It allows kid to be successful no matter what sort of shape they are in -- the old phys-ed did not help those who needed it most."
Districts that have changed their physical education programs tend to be in affluent suburban areas, IUP's Lorenzi said. That's in part because of the cost needed to buy new equipment, he said.
Rural Titusville, Crawford County, however, is among the state's trendsetters when it comes to gym.
The district has two fitness centers with exercise bikes, rowing machines, elliptical trainers and weight-lifting equipment. Stationary bikes are equipped with video play stations that simulate riding a bike.
"Video games are our enemy, but these video games are helping us bring kids in," said Tim McCord, the district's health and physical education director, who testified about the program before Congress two years ago
Titusville purchased heart rate monitors that cost about $260 each.
In part, revamped phys-ed programs reflect an uphill battle against childhood obesity, which according to the National Center for Health Statistics, was 45 percent higher in 2002 than in 1994. According to the state Health Department, more than a third of Pennsylvania students are or are at risk of becoming obese.
