In recent years there has been a remarkable enhancement in the knowledge and understanding of endocrine responses to exercise and exercise training in children and adolescents who participate in sports. This includes, for example, exercise-associated changes in growth factors that regulate muscle adaptations to exercise training, the use of hormonal changes to assess training intensity, as well as deleterious effects of competitive sports, in particularly if associated with inadequate nutrition, on growth and the reproductive system. However, major scientific gaps still exist in our understanding of the application and translation of this knowledge to the everyday use of young athletes and their coaches. These gaps include the translation of laboratory research to “real-life” training setting to optimize training efficiency, mainly due to the lack of “real-life” exercise studies; and the use of genetic endocrinology for sports selection, the prediction of excellence in sports and to improve training.
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Endocrine Response to Exercise and Training—Closing the Gaps
Alon Eliakim
Exercise and Pediatric Brain Development: A Call to Action
Sidney J. Segalowitz
Exercise has long been reputed to have beneficial effects on cognitive processes and emotional stability, with obvious applications to lifespan developmental issues in mental health. Over the last 20 years, animal studies have provided potential mechanisms for this link in neurophysiological terms. Only a very small number of studies have applied this model to well-controlled child and adolescent studies of psychological development, with such studies necessarily requiring collaboration across the fields of exercise science and developmental psychology. In this paper, I outline why the field is now well positioned to increase this effort. Core to this argument is an outline of historical reasons for a (somewhat still active) resistance to this integrative perspective within developmental psychology and a brief synopsis of the countering evidence, followed by a summary of how advances in electrophysiology now make such studies highly accessible and reasonable in terms of cost and convenience.
Exercise and the Healthy Child: Is There Anything More We Need to Know?
Bareket Falk
Influence of Exercise and Training on Critical Stages of Bone Growth and Development
Panagiota Klentrou
Although osteoporosis is considered a geriatric disease, factors affecting bone strength are most influential during child growth and development. This article reviews what is known and still unclear in terms of bone growth, development and adaptation relative to physical activity before and during puberty. Bone is responsive to certain exercise protocols early in puberty and less so in postpubertal years, where bone strength, rather than bone mass, being the outcome of interest. Mechanical loading and high impact exercise promote bone strength. Intense training before and during puberty, however, may negatively affect bone development. Future research should focus on increasing our mechanistic understanding of the manner by which diverse physical stressors alter the integrity of bone. Longitudinal studies that examine the extent to which muscle and bone are comodulated by growth in children are also recommended.
Pediatric Exercise Science: A Brief Overview
Thomas Rowland
Interest in the physiological responses to exercise unique to the pediatric age group has grown exponentially over the past 50 years. A number of issues surrounding children’s exercise have been particularly responsible for this trend, particularly a) recognition of the health benefits of exercise in youth, b) the growing involvement of young persons in highly intense levels of sports play, and c) the role that exercise may play in the diagnosis and management of children with chronic disease. As a consequence, current research to date has provided a comprehensive picture of the features specific to children’s response to exercise. Future challenges facing the field of pediatric exercise science involve translating this information into practical guidelines which can be applied to the realms of clinical medical practice, preventive health initiatives, and athletic training regimens which are appropriate for this age group.
Physical Activity and Movement Proficiency: The Need for a Biocultural Approach
Robert M. Malina, Sean P. Cumming, and Manuel J. Coelho e Silva
“Gaps in Our Knowledge” are discussed in the context of the need to integrate biological and behavioral factors in a biocultural approach to physical activity and movement proficiency. Specific issues considered include outdoor play, organized and informal activity, biological maturation, tracking of activity, development of movement proficiency, and individual differences. Studies considered are largely based on youth in economically better-off, developed countries in the western culture context. There is a need to extend studies of physical activity and movement proficiency to different cultural contexts.
Protein Needs of Physically Active Children
Re: Golden Horseshoe Pediatric Exercise Group: Proceedings Paper
Kimberly A. Volterman and Stephanie A. Atkinson
Current Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) for protein for children and youth require revision as they were derived primarily on nitrogen balance data in young children or extrapolated from adult values; did not account for the possible influence of above average physical activity; and did not set an upper tolerable level of intake. Revision of the protein DRIs requires new research that investigates: 1) long-term dose-response to identify protein and essential amino acid requirements of both sexes at various pubertal stages and under differing conditions of physical activity; 2) the acute protein needs (quantity and timing) following a single bout of exercise; 3) the potential adverse effects of chronic high intakes of protein; and 4) new measurement techniques (i.e., IAAO or stable isotope methodologies) to improve accuracy of protein needs. While active individuals may require protein in excess of current DRIs, most active Canadian children and youth have habitual protein intakes that exceed current recommendations.
Aerobic Fitness and Training in Children and Adolescents
Neil Armstrong
For ‘The Year that Was—2015’, I have selected 2 papers which review aspects of aerobic training. Studies of pediatric aerobic training generally focus on the effects of constant intensity exercise training (CIET) programs on peak oxygen uptake (VO2). The first paper has been chosen because it provides, for the first time, both a systematic review and a meta-analysis of the efficacy of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) in improving health-related fitness in adolescents. The second paper has been selected because it not only reviews both generic and sport-specific aerobic training studies of young team sport athletes, but also applies the analysis to the design of an evidence-based model of young athlete development. However, the primary reasons for highlighting these reviews is that they expose gaps in our knowledge of youth aerobic trainability, particularly between ‘pure’ and ‘applied’ pediatric sport science. They also identify areas where further research and appropriate data interpretation in relation to chronological age and biological maturation are required.