Physical Activity, Physical Fitness & Health: Distilling Guidelines for Young People

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in English; abstract also in Chinese.The associations between physical activity and health; physical activity and physical fitness; and physical fitness and health in young people are complex and difficult to tease out. The complexities in the relationships are in part due to the difficulties faced in appropriately appraising physical activity in young people. Physical fitness standards tend to be based on norms that have been established within a population. These norms do not provide useful information about what are acceptable fitness standards for young people of different ages. Physically fit young people may not necessarily also be physically active young people and there are concerns that the pattern of increased physical inactivity among young people may have a negative impact on their health status in later years. Current recommendations for young people mirror the thinking that discontinuous physical activity of a moderate intensity that is repeated many times over on a daily basis.青少年中體育活動與健康體育活動與體能以及體能與健康之間有著複雜的關係併難以理順。之所以複雜其部分原因是因為不能正確地評估青少年的體育活動。體能的標準往往基於大眾中建立的一些準則而這些準則併不適用于不同年齡階段的青少年。體格較好的青少年併不一定都是那些經常參加體育活動的人。但在青少年中不參加體育活動的人數增加的現象卻令人擔憂這將在今後的幾年中對他們的健康產生不良的影響。目前對青少年所推薦的體育活動形式是間斷性的中等強度的運動即在一天中反覆多次的短時間運動。