The fittest schools in Ireland step it up
FOR the second consecutive year, Oaklands Community College in Edenderry, Offaly, has been declared Ireland’s fittest school. The school that most improved its fitness — by 68%— is St Macartan’s College, Monaghan.
122 schools, comprising 13,067 junior-cycle secondary students, participated in the Aviva Healthy Schools’ Fitness Challenge, to see which school could increase student fitness most in six weeks. Fitness was assessed through a bleep test — on average, students improved 19%.
Prof Niall Moyna, from DCU’s Centre of Preventive Medicine, set the challenge. He says cardiovascular fitness is “probably one of the best predictors for health” and says we have a duty to help get teenagers fit. “Otherwise, they’re going to have a very dim future”.
Prof Moyna says aerobically fit people have reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure and some cancers.
A study carried out by one of Professor Moyna’s PhD students, Sinéad Sheridan, involving 90 transition-year students, found sedentary, inactive individuals with low fitness and poor diet had less healthy blood vessels than fit, active students.
“Using ultrasound, we measured how well the blood vessels could dilate. We found that in 15-year-old boys with poor fitness levels, the blood vessels could dilate only 50% as much as high fitness teens, clearly indicating these children had early onset of cardiovascular disease.”
Third-years at St Macartan’s College were the fittest boys in Ireland, while second-years at Ursuline Secondary School, Thurles, were the fittest girls. Boys are 45% fitter than girls, compared to 60% fitter last year, so girls are closing the gap. Boys completed an average of 67 shuttles, compared to 62 last year, an increase of 8%, with girls completing, on average, four more shuttles than last year, to reach 42, or a 10.86% improvement.
“At this age, there shouldn’t be a large difference between the genders. We have to acknowledge the huge issue of very low fitness levels among young girls. Much of this is social and cultural. When girls get to 12 or 13, other things take precedence.”
Student fitness improved courtesy of aerobic circuit training and three-kilometre runs.
¦ Reduce screen time — 86% of school-going children spend over two hours daily in front of TV, video, computer.
¦ Teens should get 60 minutes daily of moderate-vigorous intensity activity (e.g. walking).
¦ Aim to build activity into teen life.
