Health Related Physical Fitness of Boys Aged

Keeping in view the lack of information about health related physical fitness of young boys, the present investigation was carried out on 797 male children and youth belonging to Punjab and falling in the age range of 8 to 18 years. Four components of health related physical fitness namely cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength/endurance, flexibility and body composition were assessed using standard techniques. The results in general indicate a trend of improvement in cardio respiratory fitness of the boys belonging to the present study with increase in age. However when comparison is made with Prudential fitness gram standards Results indicate poor level of Vo2 max in boys of the present study, the results of muscular strength and endurance, an important health related component of fitness indicate variations in its development with respect to different body regions in boys of the present study from age 8 to 18 years. The muscles related to the upper body region like triceps, deltoid, pectorals major etc. are observed to develop relatively better in their strength endurance ability than the muscles belonging to abdominal, hip and leg regions. It is believed that disproportionate development of muscular strength endurance in boys of the present study may be due to their habitual life style and a craze for some selected muscular strengthening exercises, like use of dumbbells, lifting weights etc. in order to develop their body for an attractive physical appearance. Average percent body fat of these boys at all age level is observed to fall in the health fitness zone. However the percent body fat of boys of the present study after the age of 14 years and onwards exhibit a sharp rise, which continues up to 17 years of age