Health-related physical fitness indicators of male students

Resumen

The purpose of this study was to describe and compare health-related physical fi tness indicators in male students, ranging from 8 to 10 years of age, living in the urban region of São Luiz Gonzaga-RS. Subjects were randomly selected by clusters. The sample (457) was stratifi ed by age into three groups (123 were 8 years old, 157 were 9 years old, and 177 were 10 years old). The variables analyzed were: 1-minute sit-up test, sit-and-reach fl exibility test and 9-minute run; percentage fat and adiposity classifi cation according to the percentage. These variables were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the single-sample t test, and one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s post-hoc test (p<0.05) to identify differences. The results revealed no differences (p > 0.05) in health-related physical fi tness indicators between the groups, except for fl exibility (8-year-olds > 10- year-olds) and the 9-minute run (10 year-olds > 8 year-olds). The majority (64.9%) of the students had good levels of body fat, and better physical fi tness test performances than the AAHPERD battery criteria (1984). However, 24.4% of these schoolchildren had excess levels of body fat, and 10.8% of the students had body fat levels below 10%.