Children Becoming 'Weaker' Due to Negligence of Outdoor Activities

Children are becoming weaker, less muscular and unable to do physical tasks that previous generations found simple, a new research has revealed.

As a generation dedicated to online pursuits grows up, 10-year-olds can do fewer sit-ups and are less able to hang from wall bars in a gym. Arm strength has declined in that age group, as has their ability to grip an object firmly.

Children Spending Hours On Internet Missing Outdoor Games Are 'Ill-prepared for Adult Life'
British educationists are worried that children these days are not growing properly because they spend hours on the Internet rather than playing traditional outdoor games.

The study led by Dr Gavin Sandercock, a children's fitness expert at Essex University, studied how strong a group of 315 Essex 10-year-olds in 2008 were compared with 309 children the same age in 1998, reports the Guardian.

It found the number of sit-ups 10-year-olds can do declined by 27.1 per cent, arm strength fell by 26 per cent, grip strength by 7 per cent.

While one in 20 children could not hold their own weight while hanging from the wall bars in 1998, a decade later, one in 10 could not manage it.

Outdoor Games Combat Blood Clots
Researchers from Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands have conducted a study on the risk of developing blood clots.

"This is probably due to changes in activity patterns among English 10-year-olds, such as taking part in fewer activities like rope-climbing in PE and tree-climbing for fun," Sandercock said. "Typically, these activities boosted children's strength, making them able to lift and hold their own bodyweight."

The fact that 10 percent could not do the wall bars test and another 10% refused to try was "really shocking", he added. "That probably shows that climbing and holding their own weight was something they hadn't done before."

Increased Outdoor Activity Lessens Myopia Risk in Kids
You might be scolding your kid for putting studies at stake, courtesy long hours of out-of-doors activities, but as it turns out, outdoor games are good for children, at least as far

The findings have been published in the child health journal Acta Paediatrica.

Source-ANI

Video Games And Childhood Obesity May Go Together
Playing video games could be indirectly contributing to increased childhood obesity. Researchers have established that spontaneous food intake increases while playing those games.