Kettlebell-classroom Training (kettleclass)

University Hospital Basel

Status: Completed

Conditions: Muscle Strength; Schools / Organization & Administration; Child Development; Resistance Training; Preventive Health Services; Primary Health Care; Schools; Feasibility Studies

Treatments: Behavioral: kettlebell-training

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06910085

2024-01074 (Other Identifier)

Details and patient eligibility

About

Physical fitness is a crucial health marker, predicting both cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. Muscular strength, an essential component of physical fitness, underpins physical and psychological well-being, particularly from childhood. Increasing sedentary behavior has led to rising obesity and cardiovascular disease rates in children, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the emergence of pediatric dynapenia. Muscular fitness positively affects body composition, bone health, psychological health, and academic performance, and is necessary for fundamental motor skills.

In Basel, a ten-year trend shows declining physical fitness and rising obesity among primary school children, especially those from lower socio-economic backgrounds with less access to sports. This presents an opportunity to promote physical activity in schools. The "Kettlebell Classroom" project aims to introduce daily, playful resistance training with kettlebells over seven weeks in various schools, focusing on culturally and socially less integrated children.

Evidence supports the benefits of resistance training (RT) for children, including increased joint stability, improved motor skills, reduced injury risks, and increased spontaneous physical activity. Despite WHO recommendations for muscle and bone-strengthening activities three times a week, these guidelines are often unmet. This project aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of short, intensive exercise sessions for children, with the goal of expanding the initiative across Basel to improve health outcomes for all children.

Full description

Study intervention The intervention emphasizes full-body exercises which are performed with the own body weight and kettlebells. On every weekday, the intervention classes will receive 15 min of supervised training over 7 weeks. This results in a total number of training sessions of 35 sessions. The movements and exercises in all phases are based on functional, multi-joint movements. The focus will be on age-appropriate whole-body strength and motor skill development. It will be designed with different, varying exercises, which can be individually tailored and adapted to the children's ability. Tailored to the group, the sessions will also include parts which engage social cooperation and teamwork, so that the children will experience a sense of competence, self-determination and enjoyment of exercise while enhancing motor skills and athletic ability.

Enrollment: 92 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 6 to 9 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• all of the selected second-graders who can participate in physical education lessons will be included in the study

Exclusion criteria

• Children with a medical certificate, that prohibits physical activity, will be excluded from performance testing and training intervention.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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92 participants in 2 patient groups

kettlebell training

Active Comparator group

Description:

The intervention involves daily, supervised resistance training sessions for primary school children, integrated directly into the classroom setting. Over a period of 7 weeks, participating second-grade school classes perform 15-minute kettlebell-based workouts every school day, totaling 35 sessions. The sessions are designed to be: Playful and age-appropriate Focused on whole-body strength and motor skill development Based on functional, multi-joint movements using bodyweight and kettlebells Adaptable to individual ability levels Including elements of teamwork and cooperation to enhance motivation and enjoyment The goal is to improve muscular strength, coordination, fitness, and psychosocial well-being, particularly in children from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

Treatment:

Behavioral: kettlebell-training

regular schedule - control

No Intervention group

Description:

The control group consists of parallel second-grade school classes that do not receive any active intervention during the study period. These students continue with their regular school routine and standard physical education classes, without the additional kettlebell training sessions. Like the intervention group, they: Undergo the same pre- and post-intervention test battery assessing strength, coordination, fitness, and anthropometric measures Are assessed during school hours using identical equipment and protocols Serve as a baseline comparator to evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of the resistance training intervention