More and more coarse motor mopeds
Janine Berdelmann studied social sciences and completed her traineeship in the editorial team. She is the author of numerous science news and advice topics on .
More about the experts All content is checked by medical journalists.Obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and cardiovascular problems - they are affecting more and more children and adolescents. This is not only due to burgers, sodas and the like, a lack of exercise and lack of motor training turn many children into gross motor pugs.
At a specialist congress of the American Heart Association, experts have now shown how poor the fitness of children and adolescents is. According to this, today's offspring are far less persistent and run slower than their parents of the same age.
25 million children from 28 countries
Results from a total of 50 studies on 25 million children were included in the analysis of the US researchers. The work was carried out between 1964 and 2010 and therefore allows a direct comparison of important fitness values for 9 to 17 year olds. The scientists examined the young people's running fitness - i.e. how long they needed for a certain distance. Because, in contrast to sports such as weightlifting or gymnastics, persevering running provides information about cardiovascular fitness.
The evaluation shows that the cardiovascular fitness of children and adolescents has continuously decreased worldwide since 1975. With every decade that passed, it fell by an average of five percent. This means that young people today are 15 percent less fit than their parents 30 years ago, and they need one and a half minutes longer to cover a mile (approx. 1.6 kilometers).
Big problem
The reason? Especially overweight, the scientists conclude. 30 to 60 percent of the loss of performance while running is due to too much body fat. With devastating consequences for health: fat children also have a significantly higher risk of joint wear, diabetes or high blood pressure. This quickly puts them in a vicious circle. Because whoever tries to work off the kilos with aching knees and a bright red head, loses motivation even faster.
Scientists are also observing the weighty problem among young Germans: in this country around 15 percent of all children and young people between the ages of three and 17 have too much bacon on their ribs. Six percent of them even suffer from obesity with a body mass index of over 30.
Children don't know their body
Many children have not really gotten to know their bodies at all. For example, your brain doesn't know which muscles need to be active when balancing over a tree trunk, how to keep your balance. "There are children who no longer know how to climb a tree," says ski racer Felix Neureuther. The high-performance athlete has been campaigning for more exercise among children and adolescents for years. He observed that the young offspring simply lacked motor skills.
Chained to the television
Today, many children and young people do not even leave the house for their sense of achievement. Instead of building tree houses or organizing bike races with the neighbors' offspring, many of them chain themselves to the television with console games. "Such games are often very exciting, the children quickly reach higher levels and goals - these are real experiences of achievement for them," explains Dr. Claudia Kugelmann from the Technical University of Munich. For comparable success through physical exercise, they would have to work a lot more. That scares off many offspring.
Overcautious "helicopter parents"
The couch potato kids are not so wrong for many parents: If you don't climb trees or crawl in caves, you don't have to worry about them. The so-called helicopter parents, who no longer trust their offspring, are complicit. "If children are not allowed to test their abilities and limits, they also do not develop a feeling for their body," says Kugelmann.
But that is important in order to have fun with exercise at all. Neureuther does not like to let the parents out of their responsibility either: "I got my first television set when I was 18 years old, before that I had to play outside in nature."
Fit - even in front of the television
It is so easy to integrate more exercise into everyday life. Covering shorter distances, for example by bike instead of by car, often makes a big difference. Swimming trips with the family or hiking tours together in summer are just as good opportunities to bring more exercise into everyday life, as are sports activities offered by clubs. They not only keep the youngsters fit, they are also fun and promote social skills.
And if the offspring sticks to the television: There are numerous sports games for consoles like the Nintendo Wii. With special joysticks, tennis in the living room is no longer a problem. This also works in bad weather and keeps the children moving. At least a bit.
Tags: stress home remedies gpp
