Endurance sports in childhood

Synonyms in the broadest sense

Endurance sports, endurance, losing weight, obesity in childhood

see also: Strength training in childhood

introduction

For a long time, endurance training was considered unsuitable for children and adolescents as well as for women. The performance in endurance sports was based on an already ideology. Today we know that endurance training can be carried out at all ages and levels of development without any problems, as the adaptation symptoms of the child's organism can be compared with that of the adult. The risk of being physically under-challenged is much greater than being overburdened.

Among the most common diseases in adulthood are Obesity, Back pain and Cardiovascular diseases. These diseases are often prepared and favored in childhood by lack of exercise. The child's organism is much more adaptable than that of the adult, and existing deficits can be compensated more quickly by sufficient stress. So there are many factors that For talk about endurance training in childhood and adolescence.

The endurance

The endurance is defined as that Fatigue resistance across from physical and mental Charges. In addition, regular endurance training accelerates regeneration. In the sports science literature, endurance is summarized in a broad spectrum. So not only the monotonous forest run counts for endurance, but also through the ability to maintain speed loads (Speed ​​endurance) up to strength endurance, where the Musculature Must withstand loads of more than 25 repetitions.

Since endurance performance depends on energetic factors, endurance is in Short term endurance (less than 15 seconds of exposure), Medium-term endurance (between 15 seconds and 2 minutes) and Long-term endurance I-IV assigned. Each of these performance areas requires a different energy supply, with which the anatomy different endurance athletes. In children and adolescents, there should be no early specialization in endurance performance. Endurance should have an elementary place in basic physical training.

note:

From a biological and medical point of view, there are no indications for the limitation of endurance in childhood. Orthopedic aspects should nevertheless be taken into account.

Children like to run short and fast, this is child-friendly, performance-enhancing and motivating and should definitely be taken into account in a child-appropriate endurance training. So steer clear of monotonous, boring aerobic exercise!

The symptoms of adaptation during endurance training in childhood are:

  • Economization of the cardiovascular system
  • Increase in heart volume
  • Increase in heartbeat volume
  • Improved oxygen uptake

Training methods

There are several methods to train endurance. The training methods always depend on the respective objective. The chosen exercises in turn depend on the chosen methods.

In the training practice, between:

  • Continuous method (extensive, intensive and variable)
  • Interval method (extensive and intensive)
  • Repetition method
  • Competition method

Since no specialization should take place in a child-friendly endurance training, all methods can and should be considered. The exception is the repetition method, where the breaks are too long. Furthermore, long, intensive interval runs should be avoided.

For more information on the methods, see: Perseverance

aims

The goals in childhood endurance training are different from those in adults. While primary in adulthood fitness, health and Lose weight In addition to the sport-specific adjustments, a childhood-appropriate training is intentionally designed differently. Obese children will rarely strive for pure endurance training with their personal goal of burning fat. Children always want to combine sport with fun and games, so endurance training should always be packed into a playful setting. In general, the coordination aspect should be taken into account in endurance training in childhood. In the foreground, however, is the playful conveyance of endurance for a targeted Sports education.

Problems and dangers

In addition to the advantages of endurance training in childhood mentioned above, there are still a number of problems and risks involved in carrying out an exercise program. In general, children in particular have a high level of motivation and an urge to exercise for sporting achievements. However, this decreases increasingly from the age of 12-13-15. Adolescents are sometimes fed up with any form of physical activity. It is precisely at this age that young people react particularly favorably to endurance stimuli. It is therefore the task of child-friendly sport to convey sport or endurance sport to children and young people in a way that motivates them to do sport in the long term. In the practical implementation of physical education, however, in reality it usually looks like that primarily higher-performing students who also do sports outside of school receive special support. For long-term success in child-friendly sport, planning the lessons is particularly important. Often, students in physical education have to complete a 1000m run or Cooper test without preparation. In this way, weaker pupils get their poor performance confirmed again and again in the heterogeneous class group. It is therefore the task of the educator to pay special attention to underperforming students.

Endurance sports

Since children seldom enjoy monotonous cycling, swimming, running etc., it is important to use endurance exercise in a game of sport.
In the case of pure endurance exercise, it is important to ensure that training takes place in a group or in relay competitions.
However, a performance comparison in the form of competitions should only take place from the age of 9.

Soccer, handball, basketball and hockey have proven to be particularly suitable game sports.