Healthy Youth

A study was done to see whether kids like low variety (LV) or high variety (HV) training. According to American Alliance of Health, children should participate in a variety of activities that they will enjoy so later in life they will maintain a healthy lifestyle. If kids are being taught to exercise at such a young age wouldn’t they just get tired of it? Although these studies are done on kids in the age range of 1-9, researchers believe that there is data to be found. For many college students who lead a healthy, fit lifestyle, exercise is something that just feels habitual which could come from being exposed to HV training as a child.

Photo by UrbanLegend on Flickr.com http://www.f
lickr.com/ph/17989497@N00/2829823973/in/gal
lery-68044120@N05-72157627779563170/

    In the case study there were young children from the ages of 1 up to 9; “There were 10 boys (Caucasian) and 10 girls (9 Caucasian, 1 African American)”(Roemmich, 4). Each individual would go to a laboratory at Kent State University and perform alone without parents or other children in the room. Individually these kids would report to the university 3 times.
    At the first session a child would go through a simple height and weight check. Next they“were then fitted for and sampled the following Cybex (Medway, MA) resistance training equipment in a random order” so that they were able to do exercises like leg press, squats and so on. After completing the workout the children would rate each exercise using a visual analog scale (VAS). The next two sessions were resistance training that would include HV and LV. Making kids participate in this study doesn’t show the real effects of whether or not children will grow up doing these types of workouts. Children at such a young age will not see the point doing a leg press multiple times.
    The High Variety exercise consisted of doing all of the workouts again but without any constraints. The kids were allowed to do as many sets as possible. The only time that the instructors would interfere was to correct form. The LV would consist of the kids doing only the most liked resistance training equipment in the order that they liked them from most to least. Kids ages 1-9 are capable of accomplishing many assignments. The fact that the kids were able to do the task at hand without the instructors having to step in and show them what to do is fascinating.
    In the results of the study there were a greater number of reps done in the HV than in the LV. HV also had more weight lifted while LV was just shy. The only thing that stood out after reading this is that there was no difference in the alternative behavior of the children between the two. Although there was more achievement done in the HV the LV was liked just as much (Roemmich).
    The conclusion of this study shows how doing such exercises as a young child does not affect how a child will develop. There is much more research that is needed to come up with a fair assessment. “Variety may have a general effect on consummatory behavior” (Roemmich,8).
Parents play an important role in a young child’s life because if a mother or father has a set routine then the young child will most likely follow in the same footsteps whether that be healthy or not. A few recommendations that I would make for the researchers is to either do a study like this but with older participants or have a different variety of individuals from other backgrounds.

Works Cited

James N. Roemmich, et al. "The Variety of Exercise Equipment and Physical Activity

Participation in Children." Journal of Sport Behavior 34.2 (2011): 137-149. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 23 Sept. 2011.