Among children and adolescents, a similar trend has been observed.
Between 1981 - 2014, there was a decline in CRF, quantified by VO2max, of 3.3 mL/kg/min. This is a relative change of 7.3%, and the decline began to level off in the early 2000s.
When we look at strength, it's a bit of a nuanced
question. You see, strength is different to CRF in that it is more likely to increase with increasing bodyweight, especially if just assessing absolute strength (e.g. force/weight lifted versus relative proportion of one's bodyweight). Therefore, I would expect that, if all else was equal, a more obese population would exhibit greater absolute strength, especially early on in life where complications of the obese and metabolically ill state have not manifest.
This seems to be somewhat true. In children and adolescents, handgrip strength has increased in the last 50 years or so. However, when you look at
an explosive measure of lower body strength, broad jump ability, this has been declining. This would bolster the hypothesis that strength may be "falsely" elevated by virtue of childhood and adolescent obesity. Handgrip strength among adults has indeed been declining, which reflects the overall decline in physical capability and, of course, health.
It's quite sad, really. And it's also dangerous. We are increasingly physically incompetent, putting ourselves and
others at risk. Recently, suggestions were made to lower the Garda Síochána fitness standards even further, despite the fact that they are already fairly mediocre. We don't have enough fit people, and it's only getting worse.
Personally, I have plenty of solutions. In my Dictatorship of Gazakhstan, we will have mandatory military service and taxation stratified by physical fitness. If you are unfit, without any illness or disability as an exception, you will be placed into a higher tax bracket. As a man unable to do 10 push-ups,
you will feel pain in your pay cheque each week when you see that 40% deduction. For those of you studs cranking out 50 push-ups, you'll see a mild 10% reduction. 100 push-ups?! No tax for you, GigaChad...
In all seriousness, weakness and physical incompetence is a public health issue. But, it's a modifiable one, and nobody should be ashamed of being weak (but I do believe people should be ashamed of choosing to stay weak and not train). And guess what? Lifting weights is
#SafeAndEffective.
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Gary McGowan