from the so-why-can't-they-take-the-garbage-out dept.
Children have energy levels greater than endurance athletes, scientists find
Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd
Parents run ragged by their children may have suspected it all along.
Children Are As Fit As Endurance Athletes
Children not only have fatigue-resistant muscles, but recover very quickly from high-intensity exercise -- even faster than well-trained adult endurance athletes. This is the finding of new research published in open-access journal Frontiers in Physiology, which compared the energy output and post-exercise recovery rates of young boys, untrained adults and endurance athletes. The research could help develop athletic potential in children as well as improve our understanding of how our bodies change from childhood to adulthood -- including how these processes contribute to the risk of diseases such as diabetes.
"During many physical tasks, children might tire earlier than adults because they have limited cardiovascular capability, tend to adopt less-efficient movement patterns and need to take more steps to move a given distance. Our research shows children have overcome some of these limitations through the development of fatigue-resistant muscles and the ability to recover very quickly from high-intensity exercise," say Sébastien Ratel, Associate Professor in Exercise Physiology who completed this study at the Université Clermont Auvergne, France, and co-author Anthony Blazevich, Professor in Biomechanics at Edith Cowan University, Australia.
Previous research has shown that children do not tire as quickly as untrained adults during physical tasks. Ratel and Blazevich suggested the energy profiles of children could be comparable to endurance athletes, but there was no evidence to prove this until now.
The researchers asked three different groups -- 8-12 year-old boys and adults of two different fitness levels -- to perform cycling tasks. The boys and untrained adults were not participants in regular vigorous physical activity. In contrast the last group, the endurance athletes, were national-level competitors at triathlons or long-distance running and cycling.
Each group was assessed for the body's two different ways of producing energy. The first, aerobic, uses oxygen from the blood. The second, anaerobic, doesn't use oxygen and produces acidosis and lactate (often known by the incorrect term, lactic acid), which may cause muscle fatigue. The participants' heart-rate, oxygen levels and lactate-removal rates were checked after the cycling tasks to see how quickly they recovered.
In all tests, the children outperformed the untrained adults.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Wednesday April 25 2018, @09:48AM (1 child)
Adult athletes don't start expending their excess energy when they're tired, pissing the hell out of everybody, then abruptly fall asleep.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Wednesday April 25 2018, @10:13AM
Have you heard most Athletes talk? They sound about as stupid as children do. Once again it seems tho as if youth is wasted on the young.
(Score: 2) by aiwarrior on Wednesday April 25 2018, @10:05AM (1 child)
Maybe having children soldiers would make better commandos than adult ones? *dark humor*
Could this be some form evolutionary trait where children used to be exposed to survival contexts much earlier than what would be expected in a modern context?
(Score: 3, Touché) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday April 25 2018, @11:50AM
Like 16 year old conscripts?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 25 2018, @10:27AM (1 child)
Perhaps because they weigh less and the muscles are smaller. This study was only males for some reason, next study: adult females are as fit as male children.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 25 2018, @08:22PM
I think the word you are looking for is "less," not "as."
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday April 25 2018, @10:28AM
I can understand running the story but I really don't get why they bothered with the study. Anyone who can remotely remember being a kid remembers running every-damn-where just because it was more fun than walking. At least I hope they still can what with helicopter parents and the "everything is dangerous, we must protect the children!" mentality going around lately.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by moondrake on Wednesday April 25 2018, @11:16AM (1 child)
>The second, anaerobic, doesn't use oxygen and produces acidosis and lactate (often known by the incorrect term, lactic acid), which may cause muscle fatigue.
In is not an incorrect term. BOTH lactate and lactic acid are present (not acidosis, which is a state or process and I have no idea why it is there)! The difference is a single proton and it depends on the pH which one is more prevalent. Since the pKa for lactate is 3.9 or so, I agree that in blood you have far more lactate compared to the acid. But it is not known by an incorrect term; it depends entirely on your context.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday April 25 2018, @05:38PM
You may as well say a process that produces hydrogen monoxide is making water - that single proton makes for very different chemical properties. Lactate, being unable to donate a proton, would not be an acid. In fact, it will actually be a base since it will tend to bind to free protons already in the water. Presumably not a very strong one though, since it will then become lactic acid and tend to release that proton into the surrounding water again.
Yes, both forms will be present when in water - that's the nature of acids and bases. But only one form is actually produced by the initial reaction.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Wednesday April 25 2018, @01:38PM
At least some aspect of slow twitch muscle fiber vs fast twitch?
Possibly what we have here is whats already known, cardio bunnies have lots of slow twitch, weight lifters have lots of fast twitch, combined with possibly now we know kids have lots of fast twitch naturally?
Now a fair test isn't between slow and fast twitch people doing fast twitch work and the slow twitch people fail as you'd expect; fast twitch kids should compete with fast twitch weight lifters and see who can shoulder press 150 pounds ten times the fastest. I figure I can do that in less than 15 seconds without excessive effort. I'd even be generous enough to scale by body mass so a little kid weighing a fraction of my weight would only have to lift 40 pounds or something like that.
I HAVE noticed and experienced that kids are like dogs in that it doesn't take heroic levels of slow twitch long term stamina for a healthy skinny adult to walk them into the ground. Very young male army recruits with considerable preparation do 15 mile marches with 75 pound backpacks and its tiring but no big deal, whereas five miles with the cub scouts carrying nothing and the kids are dragging while the adults are like "that was a nice warmup, when do we start the hike?" Goes for boy scouts too, a younger boy hiking 10 miles is a much more heroic achievement than a young man going 15 miles with a heavy pack and rifle.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday April 25 2018, @04:22PM (1 child)
My two year old can do pull ups on the table, use the refrigerator handles to rock-climb, and loves to run. Kids are still learning about the world and are quite happy to "exercise" (play). You could be fit too, if you ran everywhere all day with no worries about silly things like work. My kid also eats a lot healthier than I do.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Wednesday April 25 2018, @05:48PM
Self-moving strength is hardly a fair measure though - since as you scale down weight reduces much faster than strength, being smaller, have a much greater volume to area ratio. At the same proportions half the height means 1/4 the cross-sectional area, and thus roughly 1/4 the muscle strength - but only 1/8th the mass. Hence twice the strength to weight ratio. A toddler, at call it 1/4 the scale of an adult, can reasonably be expected to have 4x the strength-to-weight ratio of an adult - all else being equal. And this study is suggesting that all else is NOT equal.
Sadly that means even a fit adult has to work a lot harder to run everywhere than they did as a child, even before any other advantages of youth are considered.
(Score: 2) by legont on Thursday April 26 2018, @01:10AM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labour [wikipedia.org]
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 26 2018, @04:40AM
Kids can run around all day outside but the second you ask them to take the trash outside or load the dishwasher, all of a sudden they can't move for shit.