Kids and Exercise: Does Strengthening Growth Stop and Should Kids Exercise at All?
When exercise and children are mentioned in one sentence, most people think of stunted growth in children, problems with joints and tendons at a later age, and more or less many believe that children should not exercise, they still have time…
It goes without saying that exercise is healthy and that activity has a positive effect on a person's overall health. Several studies confirm that physical activity has various benefits, such as:
More effective fat loss
Improving sleep quality
It helps to feel better and be more balanced with yourself
Overall improvement of mental health
Increasing bone density and reducing the risk of osteoporosis
Increasing strength and muscle mass
Improving memory and many cognitive functions
Reducing the risk of heart disease
and this could be continued. Whether a person is older or 14 years old, the activity should be part of each of us, and according to research, we can say that exercise as such is only beneficial. And actually, is it necessary to mention research on this? At a time when obesity is on the rise, increased activity should be the alpha omega. Any movement in children is therefore welcome and whether it is walking, dancing, football, it is more or less the same. The impact on physical and mental health is huge.
Therefore, today we will focus more on the issue in which mixed opinions constantly prevail and these are some kind of dogmatic ideas rather than something relevant. Let's face it, let's first look at whether exercise stops children's growth. After all, this is probably the most widespread news.
Children, exercise and stopped growth or damage to health
To relieve you right from the start, there is no scientific consensus that exercising with dumbbells slows or stops growth in children and adolescents.
This myth arose from the idea that exercise damages the so-called growth plates or even pineal plates. They are softer in human development, so they are more prone to damage. Even if a child is injured (however), it can usually be cured. It is certainly scary for parents that the damage to these plates is about 15-30% of all bone injuries in children.
However, while many think that dumbbells & children are simply the wrong combination, the truth is that injuries are much more common in organized sports. And what now? Should parents let their children sit at home because… or what if? It's like thinking never to fly a plane in your life, because what if it falls. Never go to the sea in your life, because what if there is a shark. Should we all sit in the shelter, including the children, and wait for us to die? Don't exercise, don't move? For what if we go wrong and break our leg?
There are several studies that have a similar conclusion associated with the fact that exercise, dumbbells and children are fine. Strength training does not adversely affect growth, growth plates or the cardiovascular system. Strength training under supervision is not a greater risk of injury than any other sport or activity for young people. The current literature does not suggest that strength training in children and adolescents is negative, provided certain safety rules are followed.
To conclude, extensive research on the safety of resistant training in adolescents has not found any connection, respectively. there is evidence that it should have adverse effects on growth and there is no evidence that such training affects adult height.
Well, of course, one thing is a headless exercise with bad technique, overestimating your abilities, and the other thing is systematic training with a focus on technique (ideally directed by a quality trainer), proper breathing and the like. This should always be paramount in children and adolescents! We talk all the time about a sensible approach.
And now let's look at a systematic review and meta-analysis from 2019, which addressed the link between "fitness" in children and adolescents (3-18 years) in relation to health at a later age. In total, it was data with 21,686 participants. It has been shown that a higher level of "fitness" in childhood is associated with better body composition, higher bone density and a reduced risk of cardiometabolic problems later in life. Add to that a 2-year study involving 1,635 European children aged 6-11. The authors state from the results that poor physical fitness of children is associated with the development of cardiometabolic risk factors.
Children and adolescents should definitely move and it is not to the detriment of reasonable training in the gym. The literature does not suggest that sensible exercise should negatively affect the health of children and adolescents in any way, so let's try to discard the prejudices and dogmas that if a 13-year-old cat starts lifting dumbbells with a reasonable approach, ideally under supervision, it counts within a few years. No, quite the opposite.
Children and adolescents should definitely move and it is not to the detriment of reasonable training in the gym.
Žiadne komentáre:
Zverejnenie komentára