How bad are trends in kids' fitness?

Turns out, the trends in children's fitness are not as bad as expected.

Global increases in childhood obesity are frequently assumed to go hand-in-hand with decreased motor performance in young children. But, according to a recent report, first graders around Baden-Baden, Germany, have remained reasonably fit over the last ten years.

Several reports suggested that fitness among children has declined recently, but there is still little evidence to support this assumption. To further explore this question, Spengler and her colleagues tested the fitness performance of more than 5,000 first graders between the years of 2006 and 2015.

Each year, roughly 500 boys and girls from primary schools around Baden-Baden were tested for their motor skills with exercises such as a 6-minute run, a 20-meter sprint, push-ups and exercises">balancing exercises. These exercises allowed the researchers to measure the children's aerobic fitness, strength, speed and balance, while simultaneously serving as part of the kids' normal physical education program.

First author Sarah Spengler from the Technical University of Munich in Germany said that the results only partly supported the assumption that motor performance of children has declined.

She added, "Aerobic fitness has declined, but only in boys, not girls. In contrast, speed and balance have even increased in both sexes."

The researchers attribute these surprisingly positive results to the increased participation in organized sports throughout Germany over the past several years. They also suggested that the decrease in aerobic fitness among boys may result from an overall decrease in everyday physical activity and shifts to more passive forms of transportation, as shown in other studies.

It is important to note that these data represent a regional sample which is not representative of the rest of Germany, let alone other countries. Even so, although childhood fitness may not be as bad as feared, the researchers still recommend encouraging children to exercise regularly.

The study appears in the journal Frontiers in Pediatrics.

-ANI