Original articles  EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGY AND BIOMECHANICS 

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 2005 June;45(2):171-7

Copyright © 2009 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Indoor physical education measured by heart rate monitor. A case study in Portugal

Wang G. Y. ¹, Pereira B. ¹, Mota J. ²

¹ Institute of Child Study University of Minho, Braga, Portugal 2 Research Center in Physical Activity, Health and Leisure University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

Aim. Reports indi­cat­ed ­that chil­dren are spend­ing too ­much ­time ­being phys­i­cal­ly inac­tive dur­ing phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion class­es and ­many ­school phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion pro­grams are not meet­ing the rec­om­men­da­tion. The pur­pose of ­this ­study was to inves­ti­gate the phys­i­cal activ­ity lev­els in Portuguese ­indoor phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion class­es.
Methods. The phys­i­cal activ­ity lev­els of 28 Portuguese 7th ­grade chil­dren ­were ­assessed by ­heart ­rate mon­i­tor dur­ing ­their ­indoor phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion class­es.
Results. The ­study ­showed ­that ­much phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion ­class ­time had ­been wast­ed, and ­less ­than 70% of phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion ­class ­time had actu­al­ly ­been ­used in class­es. On aver­age, 14.4 min­utes of 45-min phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion class­es and 27.9 min­ of 90-min phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion class­es had ­been ­spent in ­MVPA ­with ­children’s ­heart ­rates ­above 139 bpm; 6.7 min­ of 45-min phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion class­es and 15.7 min­ of 90-min phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion class­es had ­been ­spent in VPA ­with ­children’s ­heart ­rates ­above 159 bpm. Children ­engaged in ­more ­MVPA, VPA, and con­tin­u­ous ­bouts of phys­i­cal activ­ity in 90-min phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion class­es ­than ­those of 45-min phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion class­es. There ­were no sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­enc­es in activ­ity lev­els ­between gen­ders in co-edu­ca­tion­al ­indoor phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion class­es.
Conclusion. This ­indoor PE ­class ­study sup­ports the ­results ­that chil­dren are ­less ­active dur­ing ­school phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion class­es. Both the quan­tity and the qual­ity of ­school phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion ­needs to ­improve to encour­age chil­dren to ­engage in a sub­stan­tial ­amount of phys­i­cal activ­ity ­both ­inside and out­side ­school