Physical activity : Young French people are escaping this trendYoung trend

According to the French National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (Anses), 95% of the French adult population is exposed to a health risk due to a lack of physical activity or too much time spent sitting.

“Moving around and having fun is the key to fighting a sedentary lifestyle”. This is the message that the French Federation of Cardiology
(FFC) wants to get across during
the Parcours du coeur, which it has been organising throughout
France since 1 April and which runs until 30 June 2023. Since 2021, a connected version of the event has been held from 1 to 31 May and “allows individuals
to participate according to their availability and wishes”. Every year, the Parcours du coeur aims to encourage French people to take part in regular physical activity through numerous
events organised by towns, companies and schools. “Since the 1970s and the creation of the Parcours du coeur, the FFC has been involved in the fight against sedentary lifestyles among young people. This year, we are making the national launch of the Parcours du coeur an event to remind people that sport is synonymous
with health, but that it is first and foremost pleasure, the joy of being together and sharing great moments”, announced Prof. Alain Furber, president of the FFC in a press release.
According to the French National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (Anses), 95% of the French adult population is exposed to a health risk due to a lack of physical activity
or too much time spent sitting
down. Young people are no exception to this trend, as shown by the initial results of a recent study by the Collective for a Fit France. Conducted by Professor François Carré, a sports cardiologist
at the University Hospital in Rennes, the study entitled “Reversing the Curves” involved 9 000 sixth form students from the three regions of Auvergne Rhône-Alpes, Brittany and Hauts-de-France. The first finding was that in 50 years, the average physical
capacity of 7-18 year olds has fallen by 25%. The second part of the study shows that it is however possible to significantly reverse the trend.
Maximum speed
The value of a training programme
including two sessions per week for six weeks was evaluated.
In the group of trained children, the improvement in maximum aerobic speed (MAS), reflecting physical capacity, was almost 5%, “which corresponds to an improvement of + 235% compared with the group that did not undergo specific training”, it says. The results also show that the VMA of schoolchildren in Hauts-de-France is lower than in the other two regions. Based on this observation, the FFC would like to encourage young people to be active on a daily basis in order to protect their health, and above all “to take pleasure in it: going to school on a bike, dancing with friends, skateboarding…
it doesn’t matter how, the main thing is to move”, writes the Federation. Pr Carré calls for Paris 2024 to be used to give everyone
a taste for sport.