Fitness is becoming the new F word in the school. A welcome change I am sure you will agree! A practical and beneficial change in the understanding of how the heart operates and the importance of keeping fit has been launched by the Fitter Schools Challenge spearheaded by Ian Wright. A time worthy change to some of the issues currently considered more important to our children’s well being.

The recent focus on the nutritional aspect of catering for the bodies energy needs throughout the day is also encouraging children to take part in an initiative that is also encouraged by those that take part in sport and excel at it and also by those that realise for the first time that maybe they aren’t particularly gifted at a single sport, but hey I’m pretty good at this fitness thing and need encouragement.

I interviewed a teacher recently running the Fitter Schools Challenge at her school and judging by her reaction she is being rewarded by seeing both an improvement in the children wanting to exercise and also those that are taking the Challenge are enjoying it and finding it fun to do so . A perfect example of this would be my son returning home and wanting to show me how many squat thrusts he could do – but consequently waking up the following day with inevitable DOMS and complaining of a few aches here and there.

I was curious to find out more about the scientific aspect of child exercise so I asked Eddie Fletcher a Sport and Exercise Physiologist and Coach, for his views. ‘Children need to play, athletes need to train’ was his response.

The important issue is exercise and not sport, the infant body needs to develop naturally and safely.

By Eddie Fletcher.

It is important to realise that children develop at different rates. Exercise activities for children should concentrate on the avoidance of injury by not excessively loading the musculoskeletal system. Physiologic and performance measures improve rapidly during childhood and reach a maximum between late adolescence and approximately 30 years of age.

There are differences between boys and girls for instance maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max) is similar until approximately 12 years old, by 14 25% higher in boys and by 16 50% higher in boys. This difference reflects greater muscle mass in boys and gender differences in daily physical activity. The difference closely parallels the greater accumulation of fat in females – extra fat increases the energy cost of exercise.

Oxygen consumption in children is 10-30% higher than an adult which makes standard exercise more stressful (and performance scores poorer) and this disadvantage exist despite the higher aerobic capacity of children. This results in child heart rates been higher and they suffer greater dehydration.

Children also show a lower sweating rate and higher core temperature during heat stress so exercise intensity should decrease for children exposed to heat stress they need time to acclimatise although they cool faster than adults due to a greater body surface area.

In truth we still know very little about the benefits and risks of resistance training for children. We do know however that in pre pubescent children it is difficult to increase muscle mass, that avoidance of injury is a priority, that hormonal balance lacks full development –particularly tissue building testosterone and it is valid to ask whether resistance training for children can induce significant strength improvements

Closely supervised resistance training using concentric only muscle actions with relatively high repetitions and low resistance significantly improves muscular strength with no adverse effect on bone, muscle or connective tissue.

Conclusion

Eddie concludes that exercise for children should concentrate on skill and technique development, safety, healthy eating, prevention (smoking, drinking and drugs) and most importantly fun and variety of exercise.

Eddies views are most welcome. I met up with Eddie recently, as a relative stranger I was given a great welcome and time for an informative discussion – when it was time to leave – the day had gone all but too quickly and I left feeling that the journey to Evesham was one that was well worth the travel and it was a privilege to meet him.

With this in mind where I stand on the challenge can be summed up as:

A very influential and fit X- Trainer recently expressed how he would like to see more circuit type training, starting at school level and preaches the importance and benefits of simple safe and effective circuits.

The basics behind future X – Training Champions – could well start at school level. The snowball has started to roll and I think the initiative from the Fitter School Challenge, in this the first year of the scheme, is one step I positively agree with and think a very important lesson in the benefits of training and getting fitter.