Children run slower than their parents, according to a new study.
Across the globe, children are about 15 percent less fit than their parents were when they were young, the research by the American Heart Association shows.
The researchers analyzed 50 studies on running fitness that were conducted between 1964 and 2010. The studies involved more than 25 million kids, ages 9 to 17, in 28 countries.
The studies gauged cardiovascular endurance by testing how far kids could run in a set time (fluctuating between 5 and 15 minutes), or how long it took the kids to run a set distance (typically a half-mile, one mile, or two miles).
In the United States, cardiovascular endurance among kids fell an average 6 percent per decade between 1970 and 2000, the researchers found. Worldwide, endurance has declined consistently by about 5 percent every decade.
In a mile run, kids today are about 15 percent less fit than their parents were when the parents were young. The kids are about a minute and a half slower than the kids of 30 years ago.
Grant Tomkinson, Ph.D., lead author of the study and senior lecturer in the University of South Australia’s School of Health Sciences, said in the study announcement that the kids are less fit because of a range of factors, but obesity plays a big role.
“In fact, about 30 percent to 60 percent of the declines in endurance running performance can be explained by increases in fat mass,” Tomkinson said.
The findings point to increasing health problems and should prompt kids to engage in at least one hour of activities every day that use the body’s big muscles--such as running, swimming, or bicycling--said Tomlinson.
“We need to help to inspire children and youth to develop fitness habits that will keep them healthy now and into the future,” Tomkinson said. “They need to choose a range of physical activities they like or think they might like to try, and they need to get moving.”
He added that kids that are not fit while they’re young are more likely to get sick later in life.
“If a young person is generally unfit now, then they are more likely to develop conditions like heart disease later in life,” he said.
“Young people can be fit in different ways. They can be strong like a weightlifter, or flexible like a gymnast, or skillful like a tennis player. But not all of these types of fitness relate well to health. The most important type of fitness for good health is cardiovascular fitness, which is the ability to exercise vigorously for a long time, like running multiple laps around an oval track.”
