Is the body composition equal or more important in physical fitness variables than other features like age or sex within physical education classes? A theoretical-practice study

Faculty of Humanities and Education Sciences, University of Jaen, Campus Las Lagunillas s/n, Jaen, Spain

^a Corresponding author: arariza@ujaen.es

Abstract

The aim was to quantify the influence of body composition on the strength and cardiovascular endurance in adolescents. 858 Spanish adolescents participated in this pilot study. BMI values, standing jump test and Course Navette test were analyzed. The degree of influence of BMI was calculated by effect size. In the standing jump test, only between 18- 25% of boys and between 17-36% of overweight girls got a distance equal or greater than those with normalweight. In Course Navette, only between 9%-19% of the boys and 23%-35% of overweight girls got equal or greater scores than those with normalweight. It is concluded that only a small percentage of adolescent overweight reach outcomes in strength and cardiovascular endurance equal or greater than the normalweight students. These results suggest that it would be necessary to include the body composition variable within the scales of scholar physical fitness test in young people.