Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity in Physical Education

Abstract

This doctoral thesis, entitled moderate to vigorous physical activity in physical education, aimed to study the relationshipof different factors related to sedentary lifestyle and childhood obesity in the Mexican school context. These public health problems can be tackled from basic education, taking as an opportunity the time devoted to recess and physical educationduring the school day, where teachers through a program oriented to learn and apply pedagogical strategies that promotemoderate to vigorous physical activity, and help to improve maximum oxygen consumption and decrease body fat instudents. In the study, the methodology was with cross-sectional and quasi-experimental designs, with quantitative cohort. This research led to a theoretical and methodological review of the intensity of the physical effort of schoolchildren in basiceducation in the Mexican context through physical education and recreation. The intensity of physical activity was evaluated using different instruments such as the system to observe the physical activity instruction time (SOFIT), heartrate, accelerometers and the perception of physical exertion. Critical quantitative aspects of a planning and execution of aphysical education class were identified, where in general the activities and own tasks achieved a moderate to vigorous physical activity index less than 50% of the duration of the class and higher during the time of playtime. On the other hand,the results showed lower values of intensity of physical activity in female and / or overweight and obese students. Among the most outstanding results, we can mention the usefulness of the training program aimed at improving the index of moderate to vigorous physical activity in physical education teachers during their undergraduate phase in physical activityand sport, and later in their professional work as teachers of physical education in basic education. In this sense, another outstanding result was the evaluation of the effect of a physical activity program with moderate to vigorous intensity underthe CATCH model (coordinated advance for the health of children by its acronym in English) with didactic sequences givenby the teacher, where at least half of the physical education class the student remained at least 50% of the duration of theclass with moderate to vigorous physical activity; showing its effectiveness through the variables of percentage of body fatand aerobic capacity in children who are overweight or obese and finding significant differences in the variables studiedafter 10 months of intervention, contributing to the students' health. Once the training program was designed andimplemented, its effectiveness was proven to increase the intensity of physical activity from moderate to vigorous inphysical education classes. It is this line, it is expected that the results of this research will serve the teacher to adapt orimplement didactic and pedagogical strategies in the classes that contribute to achieve the recommendation established bythe World Health Organization (WHO) regarding the amount and intensity of Physical activity for children and youth.