Although the health benefits of childhood exercise are compelling and often extend into adulthood, daily exercise recommendations are often not met. To investigate the effect of school-based exercise on cardio-metabolic health, researchers at Loughborough University had 19 adolescent boys accumulate very-short duration sprint exercise (10, 30-meter sprints for a bout duration of less than five minutes) during four natural breaks in the school day: before and after school, as well as during recess and lunch.
Even after this small amount of high-intensity exercise, insulin concentrations were reduced on the day of exercise and triacyglycerol (fat) concentrations were lowered the next day. These encouraging findings suggest that short, high-effort exercise sessions hold much promise in the fight against low levels of physical activity and associated metabolic disorder during youth. Children are well equipped for high-intensity activity and should be encouraged to engage in challenging exercise as often as possible at school.?View the article
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