The effect of athletic training on strength in prepubertal children aged 6-9 years

The problem of practicing a sport during childhood is a largelycommented topic, being closely related to the physical development, physiological and emotional balance of the human body during the growth period.The obesity rate increased with over 20% in prepubertal children, which inevitably led to a decrease in their motor performance in strength, speed and endurance efforts, hence the imperative to train strength in children.Starting from this idea, our study aimed at investigating whether a 10-monthtraining program involving athletic means could improve strength inprepubertal children aged 6-9 years. There were 50investigatedsubjects aged 6-9 years, of whom 20subjectswere part of the experimental group. The athletics lessons took place three times per week and lasted 80 minutes.Strength was assessed by two motor tests: standing long jump and sit-ups from lying on the back within30 seconds. After the statistical processing of the obtained results in the two motor tests, we can conclude that, at this age, it is possible tointervene on the improvement of both the lower-limb explosive strength andthe abdominal muscle strength.