Effects of a school based exercise program on children’s resistance and flexibility

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the short term effects of an exercise program on abdominal and back muscles resistance and hamstring flexibility among schoolchildren. Fifty eight healthy schoolchildren were divided into two groups: experimental (15 males and 14 females; mean age 12.2±1.8 years) and control (14 males and 15 females; mean age 11.9±2.1 years). The intervention was performed twice a week, on nonconsecutive days, during six weeks. The duration of each session was fifty minutes and they were composed by warming up aerobic exercises, isotonic and isometric abdominal and back muscle exercises and hamstring stretching. The intervention effects were evaluated through Kraus-Weber test (abdominal resistance), modified Biering-Sørensen test (back muscle resistance) and sit and reach test (hamstring flexibility). Data were analyzed by mixed-design two-way ANOVA, with one between-subjects and one within-subject (time) factors. The alpha level was set at P0.05. The experimental group improved back muscles resistance and hamstring flexibility, but not abdominal muscles resistance. There was a significant interaction between groups and time for back muscles resistance (P=0.018) and for hamstring flexibility (P=0.017). The 6-week training period showed positive results in improving back muscles resistance and hamstring flexibility of schoolchildren.

Pilates Training Induces Changes in the Trunk Musculature of Adolescents

“…However, the strength assessment of the trunk flexor muscles becomes difficult to compare with our study, considering they employed an isometric test. Furthermore, in relation to the trunk extensor muscles, it can be seen that the strength time is considerably higher in our study than in Moreira et al 30 This difference remains normal because of the different position of the arms during the test. Nonetheless, our findings are in agreement with those of Moreira et al 30 in relation to the improvements of the trunk extensor muscles; however, our protocol obtained an increase of 23.5% improvement compared to Moreira et al 30 8.75%.…”

“…In comparison to our study, our program duration was lower, six versus eight weeks, but we employed the same frequency and duration of sessions. Thus, we can suggest that a shorter duration program, which is based on the Pilates method, could promote significant improvements in abdominal strength (23.5% vs. 9%) among school aged youth, compared to a program developed specifically for abdominal strength, such as that described by Mayorga et al 29 In addition, Moreira et al 30 analyzed the strength of the flexor (Webber Kraus Isometric Test) and extensor muscles of the trunk (Sörensen Test with 180º shoulder flexion) in school-aged youth. The sample consisted of 58 students (control group=30, experimental group=28), with an average age of 12 years.…”

Scoping Review on Interventions for Physical Activity and Physical Literacy Components in Brazilian School-Aged Children and Adolescents

“…Table 3 summarizes the PL investigated in the studies according to age group. The components most frequently evaluated in interventions were PA attributes [18][19][20][21][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]37,41,42,44,45,48,50,[52][53][54][56][57][58][59][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72]75,76] (30 studies; 71.4%). In general, children were evaluated in terms of fine and global motor skills, balance, body schema, and spatial and temporal organization [50,56,76,80].…”

“…In general, children were evaluated in terms of fine and global motor skills, balance, body schema, and spatial and temporal organization [50,56,76,80]. Muscle and cardiorespiratory endurance have been investigated more in adolescents [23][24][25][26]44,45,48,[52][53][54][70][71][72] than in children [27,57,66]. Flexibility, physical and cardiorespiratory fitness, agility, BMI, weight, and height were variables assessed in both age groups [18][19][20][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33]41,42,62,[64][65][66][67]69,72].…”

Effectiveness of mat Pilates on postural alignment in the sagittal plane in school children: a randomized clinical trial

“…However, intention-to-treat analysis and protocol analysis showed the same results. In the previous studies, experimental studies that evaluate the effects of exercise programs in children with a dropout rate higher than 20% can still be found [45][46][47] . Children are dependent on their parents or guardians to be able to attend exercise sessions, so the dropout rate may be high when conducting studies with this population.…”