Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Assessment of physical fitness is a common and effective method for evaluating the health status of teenage students.
OBJECTIVES:
The present study was conducted to assess physical fitness in adolescents residing in Shanghai, and investigate the relationships among anthropometry, muscle fitness, and a 20-meter shuttle run test (20-m SRT).
METHODS:
A total of 449 middle school students (12–17 years old, 246 boys and 203 girls) from four different regions of Shanghai, China were included as study participants.
RESULTS:
Multiple linear regression analyses indicate that upper extremity muscle strength and standing vertical jump were positively related to age and weight, while negatively related to gender, scapular skinfold, and calf skinfold. Strong positive correlations were also demonstrated between the number of laps accomplished on the 20-m SRT and upper extremity muscle strength as well as standing vertical jump height.
CONCLUSION:
Muscle strength is an important anthropometric characteristic that may be used for the assessment of sprinting ability in adolescents.
Introduction
Good physical fitness performance in adolescents is strongly associated with more favorable health benefits, including skeletal muscle, psychological health, and lesser risk for obesity, cardiovascular diseases and other acute diseases [1]. It is generally accepted that an enhanced health status is often associated with a greater level of physical fitness and higher energy levels in students [2]. Social development has changed day-to-day lifestyle tendencies and in recent decades adolescents have spent less time participating in physical activity [3]. A previous study demonstrates that motor proficiency and physical fitness are correlated with the occurrence of autism spectrum disorders in adolescent males [4]. Additionally, in 2015, Haga et al. documented that motor competence has a strong association with physical fitness, a correlation that decreases with age [5]. Physical fitness evaluation can directly reflect the functional status of all body systems and actually predict human’s performance in daily life [6]. As such, assessment of physical fitness has been developed as a common and effective method to evaluate the health status of adolescent students.
Physical fitness is a prerequisite for completing daily activities without fatigue and consists of five components: body composition, cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, and flexibility [7]. Specifically, musculoskeletal fitness(MSF) is usually assessed by the standing vertical jump [8]. Cardiorespiratory endurance is important for both adequate delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the muscles, and remove of waste from the muscles [9]. As a pivotal parameter of aerobic performance, the maximal speed reached in a 20-m shuttle run test(20-m SRT) is measured to assess maximal oxygen uptake (one of the best indicators of cardiorespiratory endurance capacity) and blood-lactate accumulation [10]. Furthermore, strong evidences indicates that the 20-m SRT is a valid test for cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), and the number of laps accomplished on a 20-m SRT is identified as an independent factor for cardio-metabolic risk [8].
Several physical fitness investigations have been conducted worldwide, however ethnic differences often lead to different results [11, 12]. Several studies have also been conducted to explore the relationships among muscular strength and power, and health outcomes in youth, especially in professional athletes [13, 14, 15]. The assessment of the relationship between anthropometry and muscular fitness, however, remains unclear in Chinese adolescents.
To explore the physical fitness of Chinese adolescents, a physical fitness assessment was conducted among 449 middle school students in Shanghai, China. The effects of anthropometric characteristics on muscular fitness and the relationship between muscle fitness and repeated sprint performance were analyzed to provide an evaluation of the physical fitness of adolescents in China.
Methods
Participants
Subjects from various schools in Shanghai, China, were selected by the Shanghai Institute of Physical Education using a cluster sampling method. Geography was considered during school selection, and all chosen schools were in different regions of Shanghai. A total of 449 middle school students aged 12 to 17 years (246 boys and 203 girls) were enrolled from four different middle schools. All protocols were prepared and conducted according to the local Ethical Committee of Shanghai Institute of Physical Education, and informed consents were obtained from all participants.
Procedures
The testing team was organized by the Shanghai Institute of Physical Education, with 21 people, including 19 testers (at least six women), 1 doctor, and 1 instructor. All students followed a similar supervised training program and all tests were performed on the same day. Test sessions were undertaken between 07:00 and 09:00 AM. and repeated sprint performance was conducted between 16:00 and 18:00 PM. To assess cardiorespiratory endurance, repeated sprint performance testing was performed outside on a rubber track following 20 min standardized warm-up. Participants were fully informed of all test procedures, experimental design, and potential risks of the study. All tests were performed strictly according to the rules and requirements, and instrument calibration was conducted to minimize measurement and instrument error before testing. Basic participant information including school, name, age and gender was queried and recorded.
Anthropometry assessments
Primary dimensions including height, weight, body fat percentage, hip circumference, waist circumference, triceps skinfold, scapular skinfold, and calf skinfold were measured in each subject. Height (measured to the nearest 0.1 cm with a fixed audiometer) and weight (measured with a digital balance (
Descriptive analysis for the participants
Descriptive analysis for the participants
SD: Standard deviation; CI: Confidence intervals.
Physical fitness was quantified using muscular fitness (muscular strength, endurance and flexibility) and cardiorespiratory endurance. Upper and lower extremity muscle strength muscle strength in muscular fitness was examined using standardized operation of hand-held dynamometry (HHD; Chatillon MSC Series Medical Dynamomete) [17, 18]. Muscular endurance and leg flexibility were assessed via standing vertical jump performance [19], which was examined after an active warm-up period and measured with a soft tape measure (
Multiple linear regression models with upper extremity muscle strength as the outcome and anthropometric data as the explanatory variables
Multiple linear regression models with upper extremity muscle strength as the outcome and anthropometric data as the explanatory variables
All data is presented as mean
Results
Body composition, muscle strength and 20-m SRT
The body characteristics for all participants are presented in Table 1. The mean subject height and weight were 155.92
Multiple linear regression models for muscular fitness
Multiple linear regression models were built with muscular fitness indexes as outcomes and anthropometric data as explanatory variables. As shown in Table 2, upper extremity muscle strength was significantly associated with gender, age, weight, scapular skinfold, and calf skinfold (
Multiple linear regression models with standing vertical jump as the outcome and anthropometric data as the explanatory variables
Multiple linear regression models with standing vertical jump as the outcome and anthropometric data as the explanatory variables
Multiple linear regression models with the number of laps on the20-m SRT as the outcome and muscular fitness indexes as the explanatory variables
A Multiple linear regression model was built with the number of laps accomplished on the 20-m SRT as the outcome and muscular fitness indexes as explanatory variables. According to the result shown in Table 4, strong positive correlations existed between the number of laps accomplished on the 20-m SRT and upper extremity muscle strength as well as standing vertical jump, with the coefficients of 0.476 and 0.490, respectively.
Discussion
Physical fitness is a well-known indicator of health status. Physical fitness assessment, such as BMI and aerobic capacity, have also been correlated with academic achievement in preadolescents [20]. As such, multiple studies have been conducted to evaluate physical fitness in students. In the current study, age, weight, gender, scapular skinfold, and calf skinfold were significantly associated with upper muscle strength and standing vertical jumping in adolescents in Shanghai, China. Furthermore, upper extremity muscle strength and standing vertical jump were significantly correlated with the number of laps in the 20-m SRT, an important indicator for cardiorespiratory endurance in physical fitness.
Anthropometric characteristics, such as weight and stature, have been associated with both repeated-sprint ability and single-sprint performance. Our study found the BMI for middle school students (12.98
Body composition plays an important role in determining an elite athlete and is closely related to athletic performance. A strong positive correlation has also reported between maximum power and maximum strength [28], and explosive leg strength has been correlated with peak and mean power by Arslan [29] and Mayhew et al. [30]. In the current study, extremity muscle strength was 37.29
One unexpected finding of the present study was a lack of significant regression equation between lower extremity muscle strength and anthropometric characteristics. Other researches also demonstrated that no relation was found between leg or keen strength and 10 or 40 m sprint performance [28, 34]. Meanwhile, running, jumping, and training are beneficial for quadriceps development, whereas they have no effects on the hamstring improvement, in which flexor muscles play an important role [35, 36]. Another possible explanation for lack of association might be in characteristics variability between different participants.
It is common for specialized athletes to have improved repeated-sprint abilities with better acid-base regulation, a greater oxidative capacity, and faster pho- sphocreatine resynthesis than non-specifically trained students [27]. Training can significantly decrease body fat percentage and body fat content, as well as maximize lean tissue content [35]. A short period of training can also increase muscle strength, as a result of neural adaptation [35]. Thus, exercise and training might improve muscle fitness and repeated-sprint ability by changing body composition.
Although many positive results have been obtained by the current investigation, several limitations still existed in our study. This study was only conducted in a single city in China, which might not adequately represent the student sample of the entire country. Additionally, maximal oxygen uptake was not detected to reflect cardiorespiratory endurance capability of the participants. Furthermore, these multiple regression equations should be verified via further research.
In conclusion, anthropometric characteristic examination revealed that Shanghai middle school students have a relatively lower physical fitness level, and anthropometric characteristics could significantly influence physical fitness which might be used as a predictor for repeated sprint performance. Considering the effects of standing vertical jump and 20-m SRT on MSF and CRF respectively, the preoccupation of training these variables as separate qualities could thus be overemphasized.
Footnotes
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Key Projects in the National Science and Technology Pillar Program during the Twelfth Five-Year Plan Period (2012BAK21B 03).
Conflict of interest
All authors declare no conflict of interest.
