Relation between Weight Status, Physical activity, Maturation, and Functional Movement in Adolescence: An Overview

Abstract

Obesity, low level of physical activity and dysfunctional movement patterns presents one of the leading health issues that can contribute to increased risk for developing not only metabolic and cardiovascular disease, but also musculoskeletal problems. The aim of this paper is to summarize literature and evidence about relationship between functional movement (FM) patterns, physical activity (PA) level and weight status in average adolescent population. In addition, this paper summarized current evidence about relations between maturation effects and functional movement among athletic adolescent populations. Summary of current evidence suggests that decreased physical activity level is negatively correlated to functional movement in adolescence. Additionally, most studies suggest that weight status is negatively correlated to functional movement patterns although there is conflicting evidence in this area. Evidence consistently showed that overweight and obese adolescents exhibit poorer functional movement compared to normal weight adolescents. In addition, it appears that maturation has effects on functional movement in athletic populations of adolescents. It is therefore important that practitioners consider interventions which develop optimal functional movement alongside physical activity and weight management strategies in children, in order to reduce the risks of injuries and pathological abnormality arising from suboptimal movement patterns in later life.

The Assessment of Functional Movement in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…The final major finding of this systematic review and meta-analysis is the degree to which we found a negative and moderate-to-large association between BMI and FMS™. In the literature, weight status has been shown to consistently impact functional movement performances during childhood and adolescence, with similar evidence found in late athletically determined adolescent populations [ 81 , 82 ]. However, BMI is not without criticism, and, in the context of the data presented in this systematic review and meta-analysis, some caveats may be worth noting.…”

Investigating the Age-Related Association between Perceived Motor Competence and Actual Motor Competence in Adolescence

“…The lack of strong functional movement capacity may be due to additional factors, such as postural instability, resulting from extended static periods during schooling [20]. As functional movement has been linked with improvements in PA behavior [56,80], these low values are troublesome and indicate it is imperative to focus on growing functional capacities in PE and sporting environments to promote efficient and safe movement among adolescent populations. Functional movement exemplifies the definition of MC, as presented by Robinson et al (2015), in addition to its theorized links with FMS skills [26,81].…”

Factors related to lower limb performance in children and adolescents aged 7 to 17 years: A systematic review with meta-analysis

“…Howere no differences were found in females subgroups (i.e., skeletal age, sexual maturation and menarche). This can be explained by the fact that peak biological maturity in female subjects occured about two to three years earlier compared to their male peers [ 18 , 61 , 62 ]. In addition, there were a low number of studies in each analyzed subgroup, it is suggested that by increasing the sample size in the subgroups, the results could have pointed to significant differences.…”