Why can children run all day without getting tired?

Most of us find that children can run and jump, play for hours without almost needing to rest. For parents or babysitters it is exhausting. Is it because of a health condition or is there any other reason?

Researchers from the University of Clermont Auvergne, France, have published the results of their study on April 24 for high-intensity physical activity and recovery after exercise by children and adults. . The results showed that children not only performed better than most adults but also did well as endurance athletes, even though they recovered faster than athletes.

Muscles of children are different from adults

Children's muscles are tired more slowly than adults.

Experiments were conducted many times to show that the muscles of children are tired more slowly than adults. This result is in contrast to what science predicts, for example, logical reasoning suggests that children have shorter limbs, so they have to step / pedal more and therefore theoretically have to consume more energy. more quantity; or when you are active, you want to stop, children have to exercise more muscle to keep moving, because their skills are less than adults, and therefore have to use more energy.

So how does the muscles of the child recover?

Aerobic respiratory and anaerobic respiration exercises

A reasonable explanation for the flexible muscles of children is due to the way their bodies use other energy unlike adult bodies.

Anaerobic airways (oxygen-free) produce large amounts of energy without oxygen, but tend to cause muscle fatigue quickly. For example, sprinters rely on anaerobic metabolism to run quickly over a short distance. Aerobic airways (which require oxygen) tend to produce energy at lower speeds but allow us to work for hours without muscle fatigue, like running a marathon.

Current studies suggest that it is likely that children get more energy from aerobic sugars than adults, minimizing fatigue due to anaerobic respiration . The child's aerobic apparatus is also started faster than adults, so children do not need to rely on anaerobic metabolism when starting the exercise. This advantage is partly due to the fact that children have a higher rate of muscle fibers in the slow-shrinking group than adults, these fibers carry many of the enzymes that control the release of energy from aerobic sugar. .

The findings reinforce the inference that when doing the same exercise, the child's muscles work like the bodies of endurance athletes, the body of the child has many of the same characteristics as an athlete.

That scientific reasoning has been proved through the above study. The target groups of the study include: children (average 10.5 years), youth (21.2 years) with the same level of physical activity as children, and male athletes durable with age and height equivalent to the other youth (21.5 years). All three groups completed 2 on-site cycling tests.

In the first test, the energy intensity used was continuously increased until it was down. In the second test, subjects who participated in cycling sprinted in 30 seconds. Through two exercises, the researchers measured the physiological responses of the body and evaluated both the rate of fatigue and recovery.

They found that children and athletes were equally tired in their bouncing exercise, but much less than those who did not practice professionally. Figures also show that the amount of energy generated from aerobic airways in a 30-second bike ride by children and athletes is the same, but more of the youth does not practice.

Muscles of children recover very quickly after practicing intense exercises.

Thus it can be seen that the rate of fatigue in children and athletes during high intensity training is the same, and this is related to the strong production of energy from aerobic sugar.

The data collected during the recovery process also showed surprising results. The speed of using oxygen decreases after the exercise of children and athletes is the same. The rate of heart rate returns to normal and the index of lactate (a compound related to muscle fatigue) is cleaned in the blood of children even faster than the athlete's, and much faster than with young people not practicing.

These figures show that the muscles of children recover very quickly after practicing intense exercises and can explain why children can easily rehearse the exercise while most adults continue to see exhausted.

How does children's muscles work?

The results of the study provide quite convincing arguments to optimize children's exercise and performance.

Compared with adults, children can benefit from short, high-intensity exercises to promote anaerobic respiration, and a focus on movement skills, muscle strength, and physical qualities. other. On the other hand, adults may need to focus more on improving the aerobic respiration of muscles.

The study also helps identify more health problems, such as:

1. Metabolic diseases, including diabetes and many forms of cancer are becoming more common in adults but still very rare in children.
2. The loss of aerobic respiration by the body when the body moves from child-to-adulthood may be at risk of developing metabolic diseases.
3. In the future, discovering the link between muscle development and disease, and checking whether muscle training during childhood through appropriate exercises can be the best preventive remedy. disease later.