Development of students’ physical fitness and capacity

The problem of evaluation of healthy people’s health condition focuses on the assessment of adaptation of specific groups of people and separate individuals to stressful situations. Public health processes cannot be controlled by comparing “less healthy” individuals to “more healthy” ones unless health parameters are available. It is vital to create new diagnostic methods reflecting a capacity to adapt to environment, and to elaborate the existing ones on a personal and population level. It is urgent to examine the indicators of physical fitness, physical and functional capacity demonstrated by students at higher schools; and to compare research data with the findings provided by previous research, to create scales for the evaluation of individual physical condition of students. Research subject: physical and functional condition of Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU) students. Research purpose: to inquire into the development of physical fitness, physical and functional capacity of present-day students and to work out scales for the evaluation of indicators under investigation. Over the academic year 2011/12, 456 VGTU students were examined. Physical fitness, physical and functional capacity parameters were determined. Eurofit research protocol and methodology created for the research of higher school and college students was used. Research data were processed by means of the mathematical statistics quantitative data computation methods. Height indicators demonstrated by students under research do not differ essentially from data published ten years ago. The findings show vital changes in student height increase over the past 40 years, from 1963 till 2003, witnessing the acceleration phenomena; however, over the past 10 years, this phenomenon has not been observed because the mean height of students investigated by us does not differ statistically from the data provided by Eurofit. Mean body mass indicators demonstrated by students involved in our research coincide with the Eurofit data; however, they differ greatly from the data exhibited by students 40 years ago. Indicators of physical capacity showed that students involved in our research were weaker than students examined 10 years ago. The Ruffier test performance mean shown by students under our research was evaluated as a medium one; since the area of distribution of this value is wide, it is evaluated as an indicator of heart function insufficiency by quite a large number of students. Estimation of the development of students’ height and body mass over 40 years provides sufficient grounds to argue that youth acceleration process in Lithuania took place from 1963 till 2003; however between 2003 and 2013 this phenomenon was not observed. It was found that the means of performance by students tested in this research against Sit up and lie down and Flamingo tests lagged behind the means provided by Eurofit for students. Physical capacity of students investigated by us varied greatly, and the research data distribution area was extensive, with especially wide distribution in the Flamingo, Handgrip and Sit down and reaches out test data. Inquiry into the functional capacity of circulation system of students under research indicated that a substantial part of students had their circulation systems evaluated at the level of heart function insufficiency. On the grounds of these data, medical control as well as strictly regulated, health-promoting physical activity is recommended. Evaluation scales created by us will help to assess more precisely the physical and functional condition of students and to provide the grounds for more precise recommendations for working out the complexes of physical activity measures. They will facilitate the monitoring of the development of the existing physical condition of students