Exercise Performance and Serum Lipids in Relation to Physical Activity in Schoolchildren

Abstract

37 Schoolchildren aged 11 to 13 years were studied: 9 trained boys and 7 trained girls, 12 nontrained boys and 9 nontrained girls. The trained children participated regularly in track and field training and competitions. All 37 children performed the pulse-conducted exercise test with an acceleration of 8 beats/min² on a bicycle ergometer. In addition to the ergometric parameter, i.e., the total work, the serum lipids were determined from fasting blood samples.

The means of the total work for the trained and nontrained boys were 1.84 and 1.29 kJ/kg and for the girls 1.74 and 1.10 kJ/kg, respectively. The serum cholestererol was 4.8 mmol/l for the trained boys and 4.5 mmol/l for the trained girls. In the nontrained children, the cholesterol level was 0.3 mmol/l lower. This difference was obviously due to the higher HDL-cholesterol level in the trained children, which was 1.67 mmol/l for the boys and 1.61 mmol/l for the girls, whereas the values for the nontrained boys and girls were 1.32 and 1.29 mmol/l, respectively. A positive correlation between the HDL-cholesterol concentration and the total work/body weight could be demonstrated in the boys (r = 0.53, P < 0.05).