Energy Expenditure in Preschool Children Depending on Various Teaching Methods When Practicing the Abc Gymnastics Programme

Abstract

The aim of the study was to determine whether obstacle course and circuit training areefficient teaching methods as forms of exercise in terms of their intensity, monitored by usingenergy expenditure measuring devices. The key differences in energy expenditure between thetwo teaching methods were examined. The BodyMedia SenseWear equipment for measuringenergy expenditure was used to acquire data from two practice sessions. A sample ofparticipants included 24 five-year-old children from one kindergarten in Ljubljana, althoughcomplete data from both afternoon practice sessions was obtained only from 12 children. Thestudy has shown that obstacle course and circuit training are adequate teaching methods, asmoderate to vigorous intensity was achieved with both methods when practicing the ABCs ofgymnastics. The average energy expenditure has exceeded 7 MET in the main part of twopractice sessions for both obstacle course and circuit training. The results showed nostatistically significant differences in energy expenditure between genders or the specificteaching method used.