What is it about?
Although several studies have shown that obese children and adolescents are less physically active than non-obese, the relationships between physical activity (PA), inactivity (i.e., television watching), and weight status in youth has not been clearly established. Overall, the results of this study pointed to the relevance of motor coordination and physical fitness (strength and aerobic endurance) as promoters of a healthier body fat level during childhood
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Why is it important?
The longitudinal results of this study pointed to the relevance of motor coordination and physical fitness (strength and aerobic endurance) as promoters of a healthier body fat level during growth. Such a conclusion claims for intervention policies capable of promoting enjoyable, but defying motor activities for children. Activities where children could be challenged to exercise their fundamental motor skills and by that to enhance their motor proficiency.
Perspectives
The general results of the present study showed the importance of motor coordination and physical fitness as protecting factors for adiposity. Of course PA is also an important factor of PF and MC, but perhaps in children we should look to this relationship through a new perspective, where PA could be assumed as an outcome of PF and MC. The direction of this relationship between PA and MC was already demonstrated in the same sample of this study (Lopes et al., 2010). This relationship is explained by the fact that enjoyable and successful participation in PA can promote further engagement and persistence in such activities. Indeed, participation in physical activity proved to be associated with greater proficiency in motor skills, while less motor skills proficiency was associated with lower levels of activity and reduced motivation for challenging activities. Without an adequate level of proficiency in motor skills along with some level of PF, children are constrained to the amount and range of PA they can have.
Professor Vitor P. Lopes
Polytechnic Institute of Bragança
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Motor coordination, physical activity and fitness as predictors of longitudinal change in adiposity during childhood, European Journal of Sport Science, October 2011, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1080/17461391.2011.566368.
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