2023-09-22 07:28:02
A daily lesson with physical activities demonstrably makes elementary school students fitter, reports Graz exercise scientist Gerald Jarnig and colleagues. It could be implemented without additional ongoing costs, and you would not have to change timetables, lesson times and curricula, nor convert the classrooms, as is sometimes claimed, he explained to the APA. The study was published in the “Journal of Sports Science”.
Jarnig provided children in the fourth grade of elementary school with daily physical activity in a pilot project. “According to the curriculum, sports lessons are scheduled twice a week for 50 minutes,” says the researcher, who works at the Institute for Movement Science, Sport and Health at the University of Graz: “The children learned on the three days a week when there were no sports lessons in a German or mathematics school lesson, cognitive content in connection with specific movement activities.”
Additionally, they were given homework that included physical activities. “For example, the children were asked to take a walk in nature and were given a checklist with the objects they would see on this walk, such as a red car, a park bench or a pedestrian crossing,” says the specialist publication.
After nine months, the students in the experimental group with exercise sessions had noticeably greater increases in cardiopulmonary fitness, muscle strength and mobility than the students in the control group without daily activities, reports Jarnig. They also showed a reduction in the “hip to height” dimension, meaning they were less corpulent. These effects were less pronounced in children who were active in a sports club. “Joining a sports club has the same effect,” says Jarnig.
However, responsibility for the children’s physical fitness should not be passed on to private clubs, he believes: “Many parents are unable to bring their children to the sports clubs’ training sessions due to their professional obligations.” Some children also prefer to pursue artistic activities, for example in music clubs. “In the school environment, all children can participate equally in physical activities, regardless of their individual preferences and interests,” said the scientist: “Therefore, it seems to me to be the only practical option to integrate a daily exercise session into everyday school life.”
(S E R V I C E – https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2023.2259210)
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