University of Newcastle researcher Professor David Lubans is leading an evidence-based Resistance Training for Teens program, upskilling teachers with the knowledge needed to tackle physical inactivity in students.
Teachers from 90 NSW high schools will participate in the program, which focuses on targeting the chronic issue of adolescent inactivity in Year 8 and Year 9 students.
The collaboration is between six separate universities, the NSW Department of Education and five NSW local health districts.
The program will provide three tiers of assistance to the 90 schools, including training plans, intensive support and even new equipment.
Professor Lubans said resistance training helped improve muscle strength and endurance, using free weights, weight machines, resistance bands and body weight.
He said resistance training was an important skill to possess as it was an activity that could be transferred into adulthood.
“Young people should participate in muscle strength activity at least three times a week, and this training is one of the most obvious ways to do that,” Professor Lubans said.
“Through those teenage years, many move away from the traditional team sports they grew up with and look for alternative activities. Resistance training is one of those activities you can do across the lifespan.
“We want to set adolescents up with a diverse range of exercises and lifelong activity skills that enable them to be active into their adulthood.
“Resistance training becomes increasingly important when we get older as we start to lose muscle mass, and we are more prone to falls. So, if we can lay the foundations now, the benefits will be reaped down the track.”
He said the most significant cause of inactivity in adolescents was time constraints, where teens started to change priorities and focus on work, school and other commitments.
“When kids are young, their parents enrol them in lots of organised sport, and the kids who tend to excel will stay, but those who don’t, start to drop out and lose their confidence,” Professor Lubans said.
“Other things at that age become more prominent in their lives, so they may not partake in the same physical activities they participated in at a younger age. So we are looking at time-efficient interventions and strategies to fit a workout into a short period of time.
“This decline in adolescent activity isn’t just an Australian phenomenon. It’s observed all over the world.”
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, less than two per cent of adolescents meet the recommended physical activity and muscle strengthening guidelines nationally.
The national physical activity guidelines are 60 minutes a day achieving a raised heart rate, and 60 minutes three times a week of an activity like climbing, swimming or running.
Professor Lubans said the three-year project would provide students and teachers with knowledge, confidence, and competence to improve their health into adulthood.
“It aims to guide teachers around certain training aspects like safety in the gym, how to design training programs, how to run classes, and how to promote resistance exercise that is consistent with the national physical activity guidelines,” he said.
To register your school’s interest in participating in the trial commencing 2022, contact david.lubans@newcastle.edu.au.
“The goal is to get this in every school in NSW and then potentially expand it from there,” Professor Lubans said.
“We want to introduce this type of exercise safely, giving these students a beneficial experience and setting them up on a positive and healthy life trajectory.”
Hayley McMahon