Study: Kids are less fit than their parents were

[Redfairen]

Source: Associated Press

Today's kids can't keep up with their parents. An analysis of studies on millions of children around the world finds they don't run as fast or as far as their parents did when they were young.

On average, it takes children 90 seconds longer to run a mile than their counterparts did 30 years ago. Heart-related fitness has declined 5 percent per decade since 1975 for children ages 9 to 17.

The American Heart Association, whose conference featured the research on Tuesday, says it's the first to show that children's fitness has declined worldwide over the last three decades.

"It makes sense. We have kids that are less active than before," said Dr. Stephen Daniels, a University of Colorado pediatrician and spokesman for the heart association.



Read more: http://tbo.com/health/study-kids-are-less-fit-than-their-parents-were-ap_healtha7ad4d10b722441092a6e884c9e1cd1a

[Skittles]

1. that's because we only played outside

lots more room to run

[BlueJazz]

2. My parents would NOT let me sit on my butt all day playing games or watching TV.

...and I didn't really want to....lots of worlds to explore.

[Scuba]

3. No shit. I'm 65 and can still outrun my kids.

[grilled onions]

4. TV Was Only On At Night

We walked a lot or rode our bikes for small errands. We had little to keep us indoors on a good day. There was no A/C so it was cooler under a shade tree. Most tv was geared towards housewifes in the fifties. Our toys of choice took more effort. Rarely did we have sit down games unless it was raining outside.
Granted we did not have the temptations of the computer generation but we also did not have planned playtime. Boys would decide to play ball,gather a mitt or two,baseball and a bat and head for the park. This casual game of ball allowed kids to play whenever they could get enough kids--not just on a schedule.

[maddiemom]

16. Same here. I'm of the grandparent generation, however, as is anyone who

grew up in the fifties and sixties these days. As a parent, I tried to apply similar rules, but I was lucky enough to be a stay-at home mom during the elementary years. Sadly though, kids still had to have their freedom very much curtailed. No playing in the woods and roaming the neighborhood until suppertime as my generation did. Of course there were a lot of moms at whom to share supervision.

[maddiemom]

17. "...a lot of moms at HOME" Sorry

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. Girls jumped rope, rode their bikes, pretended to be horses,

played hopscotch...

[PasadenaTrudy]

14. Horses!

That was my favorite thing to do, run around pretending I was a horse. Also had a pogo stick!

[roody]

33. We had homemade stilts.

[surrealAmerican]

6. This is just sad.

It's apparently worldwide too, which I found surprising.

[missingthebigdog]

7. I don't know if I buy this. . . .

I can't find the actual study (I'll keep trying), but I wonder if the pool is consistent.

For example, in this country, prior to 1974 very few children with disabilities were in public schools. A kid or two with even mild physical disabilities would pull the averages of the sample down.

[Crash2Parties]

8. Typically not included

Statistically those data points would be considered outliers and not included.

[happyslug]

32. Also the Presidential Fitness Award was and is a voluntary program

It had limited control at the beginning and I suspect it is the base for the tests. Schools would just send in the notice of the winners to get the award. I suspect that is still the test and what we may be seeing is more schools want to win as many awards as possible, so fixing the test so more Students pass the tests, even at minimal scores (i.e. the same number of test plus 10% but much more who just meet the test).

Students in the 1960s and 1970s either wanted to beat the test completely or like me just went through the motions. Thus you may have the same number of high scorers but you may be seeing a lot more people who just past the test do to the schools trying to make it look like more and more students passed the test.

I suspect some gym teachers are awarded by the number of people who pass the test NOT how while they pass the test, just how many. Thus such gym teachers have great incentive to make as many students pass all of the tests as possible, thus maximize the awards given and the teacher can claim credit for. The best way is to get students to just meet the test goals.

A huge increase in students just passing the test, while the number of students who pass the test plus 10% would make the numbers as to each exercise look lower then it was 30-40 years ago. Lets add some numbers, 15 plus 15 plus 15 plus 15 is 60 dived by four equals 15. 15 plus 15, plus 15, plus 15, plus 10, plus 10 is 80. 80 divided by 6 equal 13.33. Thus by adding two who just past the test if the minimal test score as 10, DROPPED the average by 1.67. At the same time, the better comparison would be both sets of four 15s. Remember the famous saying "Figures don't lie, but liars figure".

[devils chaplain]

9. Wow...

On average, it takes children 90 seconds longer to run a mile than their counterparts did 30 years ago.

That is just crazy. 90 seconds added to a mile run is a major, major slow-down.

Kids are fat and don't move. There's too much to do inside nowadays.

It's sad -- running around outside and playing games with the other neighborhood kids were some of the most idyllic times of my life. No video game will ever be better than rolling around in tears of laughter on the warm grass.

[Incitatus]

10. A friend recently told me his kids took P.E as an online coourse.

I have no idea how that works, but it doesn't sound good.

[radicalliberal]

12. I am a strong believer in physical exercise for the purpose of promoting good health.

There's no doubt some kids don't engage in much physical activity these days. As for this 63-year-old man, I've been a member of a health club since the summer of 2007. I've spent a small fortune on personal trainers who have worked with me on a bodybuilding program. I'm in much better shape than I ever was when I was young.

I must say, though, that I have great reservations about mandatory P.E., especially the traditional sort that is centered exclusively around sports. The mandatory boys' P.E. of my youth (which, thankfully, was not required at my high school) was the absolute pits. There was no instruction in the sports themselves! I and my classmates were never taught how the games of baseball, football, and basketball were played. We were never taught how to properly throw a baseball or a football or how to shoot a basketball -- all of which are physical skills that must be taught. Every single one of my P.E. coaches viewed nonathletic boys with either indifference or outright contempt. I learned over time that my experience had been shared by other nonathletic guys in other school districts and in other states as well. Bullying was also common in these classes -- a fact that has been completely ignored for generations. Were it not for the Internet, it still would be ignored today. The phys ed establishment has a lot to answer for in this regard.

But most of all I didn't even get any exercise! No exercise programs were provided for the nonathletic students. I never so much as heard the words "exercise program"!

I have recently learned that there are P.E. programs today that actually promote physical fitness instead of bullying, but I'm also convinced that they are not the norm. One of them is PE4Life, which was created by the late Coach Phil Lawler. But most people who push mandatory P.E. don't seem to care about the physical fitness needs of nonathletic kids; and they dismiss bullying, including acts of physical assault, with a callous, uncaring attitude.

I've been amazed at the radical difference between the mandatory P.E. experience of my youth and my current, ongoing health club experience. They're as different as day and night. I get more exercise in a single workout session with my personal trainer than I ever did in an entire year of P.E., and that's no exaggeration! I wish people would realize that the old "sports only" approach to mandatory P.E. simply does not work for the nonathletic boys, but they don't seem to care. A "gift" from the culture of school sports, I suppose.

[wickerwoman]

26. Yes this exactly.

Very, very few people keep fit through team sports after the age of 19 or 20.

My PE classes in the 90s in quite a progressive school district were exactly as you described. They didn't even bother teaching us how to play the team sports as if every American child is just assumed to know the rules of baseball. All I remember about high school PE is sitting in the out, outfield for an hour during some softball game and the ball miraculously being hit in my direction and not being able to throw it more than a third of the way back to the middle bit where everyone else was and then everyone yelling at me. I'd probably have been humiliated if I had remotely given a shit about the game or anyone else playing it.

And don't get me started about cross-country running.

Meanwhile I discovered in my 20s that I love martial arts and kickboxing and swimming. If we'd done that in high school and Tai Chi and yoga, I probably wouldn't have developed the weight issues I did.

PE should be about helping kids discover the individual activities they enjoy and that they can use to keep fit when they are older and then giving them a regular time to get on with those activities. Team sports should be elective and after-hours only.

[happyslug]

28. You did that much work out in Gym????

I am a product of the late 1970s, my gym was to get dressed and then if I wanted to play basketball, but if I did not want to (or just stand around till the bell rang to change back into regular clothes). It was a complete waste of time. I was a lousily basketball player so I just stood around waiting for the bell. I received an "A" for the class, if you just showed up you received an "A".

[wickerwoman]

29. In theory, yes.

Our high school was built on an old quarry and the sports fields were at the bottom and in PE we used to have to "run" up the little paths on the almost sheer face of the pit for "cross country" except there were patches of trees around the course so we would all just walk for a bit and then hide behind the trees for as long as we could and then walk to the next patch of trees. The gym teacher was too lazy to ever chase any of us out.

[happyslug]

31. When I went to a suburban Junior high school we did the same

The High School was on top of the hill and below it about 100 feet vertical, but on a 1000 foot path (10% grade) was a track around the Foot ball field. The High School (it is now that School District's Junior high) was built on top of an old coal mine, the foot ball field was where the mine empty its was and further below, when I was growing up, a vast waste land from the mine (the new High School is located at that spot). We would go down the path to the field and then stop as we went behind the band stand that was opposite the school.

Once, the coach decided to send one of his football players after the people (including myself) who were lagging behind. I was hit and beaten up for NOT running, no one complained (and I look back and I should have). A few years later, after I have moved to another High School, he was involved in situation with a student (the details are fuzzy) and not only did he lose his job, but so did the School Superintend for his efforts to cover up the incident. Knowing that Coach, he probably sent a foot ball player to beat up on someone lacking behind, but this time someone filed a Criminal Complaint and I suspect the Superintendent tried to get the Student to back down by threating him with some sort of punishment but in so doing he was found to have been covering up a crime.

Now, I did hear a rumor that the couch had sex with a student, but the rumor was from an unreliable source (i.e. the person I heard it from had an attitude that if it was a scandal it had to be sex, not money or power).

As I said both lost their jobs, but nothing hit the papers (this was the 1970s), a sister of mine later had the superintendent as a substitute teacher a few years later.

Other then sending someone to beat me up, that coach did nothing to help me do physical training, even through I needed it. It was another Gym whose main purpose was to give the Football Coach a day job.

[maddiemom]

13. Like an exercise show on TV.

[maddiemom]

18. Meant to reply to #10.

[winter is coming]

11. When I was a kid, we had 30 minutes of recess twice a day in elementary school.

My kid only had one 20-minute recess per school day. Fortunately, she loves the backyard.

[Dash87]

20. 'That's valuable time that can be spent preparing for the mastery test!'

A perfect example of why standardized tests are ruining our school system. We dehumanize our kids and treat them like robots instead.

Kids simply cannot sit in a classroom for hours while a teacher drones on about math or science. The learning happens when their minds are engaged in the subject.

[winter is coming]

21. Even as a middle-schooler, I find my kid does schoolwork better if she works for a while,

takes a break outside, works some more, etc. It's the only way to get through those long, "You need to work on your History Fair project" weekends with some sanity intact.

[loli phabay]

15. as parents is our job to get our kids up and at em

My son is into the xbox and wii, so he is harder to get out. My daughter is the opposite, she has to get outside every day either fishing, shooting, hiking or playing with the dogs etc.

[Dash87]

19. Too much XBox, TV, and Internet.

While there's nothing wrong with the above, they shouldn't be done all day. Kids are replacing running around outside with friends with gaming with friends.

Outside play is mentally and physically healthy for kids.

[Nye Bevan]

22. Texting and Snapchat is much less exercise

than walking across town to hang out with your friends.

So I can't say I'm surprised.

[Arugula Latte]

23. Eat my dust, whippersnappers!

No, really, this is actually very sad.

[Nye Bevan]

24. On the plus side, their fingertip muscles are much stronger than yours (nt)

[Arugula Latte]

25. That is true.

They have excellent thumb dexterity, I'll give them that.

[mainer]

27. Remember Kennedy's Presidential Fitness medal?

I grew up in California, where an hour of physical activity per school day was mandated. And we all tried to get that medal, even though there was no way I'd ever do enough pull-ups to qualify.

Haven't kept up with school requirements now. Is an hour of activity still mandated in CA? Anywhere else?

[happyslug]

30. Kennedy's Presidential Fitness medal, I remember them well

In grade school we would be tested, I would be perfect in all the tests (I failed them all) and no one did anything with me and passed me on to the next grade. A complete waste of time and money.

I am a "followed" of W, Edwards Deming school of improving quality. In 1954 Deming gave a speech to the Japanese on how to improve quality. The Japanese embraced his concepts, while America rejected his concepts instead opting for the "Best and Brightest". Japanese products of the 1950s were worse then today's Chinese Products. Well Known to be crap. First Japanese electronics industry embraced Deming policy, then the Automotive industry. By the 1970s both were heads and shoulders over American producers of those same items. Japan gave credit to Deming and even today they top award for quality is named after him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming

What was the secret that Japan embraced and America rejected? Your best quality can be no higher then your worse input, thus to improve quality you have to improve the BOTTOM END of the pool NOT the top end.

In education it has been clear for decades that the problem is NOT the top 50-75% of students, most of them will do quite well with minimal inputs. The problem is the bottom 10-25%. No one really wants to help them, for what you end up doing is taking an "F" or failing student to a "C" student. That would be a better over all improvement in education then improving 100 "B" students to "A" Students. The reason is simple, no matter how many "A" or "B" Students get hire by a company, if that company has to hire that "F" student, that "F" student will set the quality of that business not the "A" and "B" students.

They are people who hate this idea, for they want the best for their children and will demand the best, while the parents of most "F" Students rarely if ever show up at school or interact with most teachers. Yet to improve over all education in the US, we have to address the problems of the "F" Students and we have NEVER really helped them. We help the handicap (both mental and physical) but not the "F" Students. School prefer to kick them out instead.

Now. as to physical education I do not know about today, but in my days the late 1960s to the mid 1970s, if you were NOT going to be on the Football, Basketball or maybe Field and Track, the Physical Education teachers just ignored you. No training, do what you want or fail doing what ever they decide to do that day (I tended to fail, I was one of those people that were NOT going to be on any of the team sports). They did not talk to me about getting fit, no comments to my parents, nothing, Once a year when I was failing the Presidential Fitness the would yell at me for failing one of the tests (never for failing all of them, just one they saw me fail and decided to yell at me about for some odd reason).

By the time I graduated High School I was so sick of Physical Education that I picked my collage on the grounds it had no Physical Education classes (it was an inner city Private Collage and had no gym, since that time it has moved to the suburbs and now require Physical Education by in the late 1970s it did not). I liked Collage, walked to it about 25% of the days I went (the other 75% I took a Streetcar).

Sorry, I am of the school that the Presidential Fitness Medal was the first or second down hill step on Physical Fitness in the US. It was a reward for the "Best and Brightest" in this case the most physically fit. It COULD have been used as a gage to see what students had a problem with what exercise and to help the Physical Education teacher set up programs to help such students. The problem was such a use would have tied up such Physical Education teachers who also tended to be the various sports coaches. Thus never done, at least in the School I went to. I suspect the same today, for the same system exists, the Physical Education teachers tends to be the School sports coaches and they want they team to be the best.

Thus until we start to address the physical training of the least fit, physical conditioning will continue to decline. I see NO movement to help the least fit, I see no school telling the football team it must SHARE its weight lifting equipment with people NOT on the team and incapable of using the weights set for the football team. I see no school even opening its doors at night for children to use the facilities, when such students are NOT part of any team. That is what the least fit needs, and I just do not see it.