Parents take heart: children run endurance athletes off their feet

PARENTS run ragged by their children may have suspected it all along. Youngsters have greater energy levels than professional endurance athletes, scientists have discovered, meaning it is virtually impossible for the average adult to keep up.

And for mothers and fathers hoping that tiring out their little ones will ensure a good night’s sleep, be warned.

Children also have an impressive recovery time, and will be back to their hyperactive best quicker than parents can say “lie in”.

“We found the children used more of their aerobic metabolism and were therefore less tired during high-intensity physical activities,” said Prof Sébastien Ratel of the Université Clermont Auvergne, France.

“They also recovered very quickly – even faster than the well-trained adult endurance athletes. This may explain why children seem to have the ability to play and play and play, long after adults have become tired.”

Previous studies have shown that children do not tire as quickly as untrained adults during physical tasks and it was suggested they had energy profiles comparable to endurance athletes, but there was no evidence to prove it until now.

Researchers recruited 12 youngsters aged between nine and 11, 12 untrained men and 13 male endurance athletes who were national-level triathlon competitors or long-distance runners and cyclists.

All were asked to perform two sevensecond resistance sprints, followed by a minute of recovery while their aerobic energy output was measured.

On a second visit they were asked to complete the Wingate Cycle Test, which measures anaerobic output by asking participants to cycle as fast as they can for 30 seconds.

The participants’ heart-rates, oxygen levels and lactate-removal rates were checked following the cycling tasks to see how quickly they recovered.

It was found that children not only have fatigue-resistant muscles, but recover very quickly from high-intensity exercise – even faster than the welltrained adult endurance athletes.

During the Wingate test untrained adults’ power output fell by 51.8 per cent, and athletes by 41.8 per cent, but children’s only fell by 35.2 per cent.

The researchers believe the findings could help develop athletic potential in children as well as improve understanding of how the body changes from childhood to adulthood.

Dr Ratel added: “Our research indicates that aerobic fitness, at least at the muscle level, decreases significantly as children move into adulthood – which is around the time increases in diseases such as diabetes occur.”

The research was published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.