**3.5 Relationship between physical strength, athletic capability evaluation test scores and lifestyle aspects**

Children with high scores for physical strength and athletic capability clean up their surroundings and rooms more than children with low scores (p < 0.01) and

*A Study on the Relationship between Health and Physical Fitness and School Life… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110164*

many children answered that they would plan and study without saying (p < 0.05) (**Table 5**). Children with high scores for physical strength and athletic capability evaluation tests answered the following items: "stop when the time is decided in the middle of play", "decide what TV programs they want but do not watch constantly", "decide what they want to be in the future", and "there are things they want to do when they grow up." Although they answered many items, there was no significant difference. On the other hand, in the item of "staying at home alone" the "low" score was higher than "standard" and "high" scores.

#### **3.6 The relationship between physical strength and athletic capability test scores and health aspect.**

In the item "spending time well every day," it was found that many children with high scores responded "very cheerfully" (p < 0.01) (**Table 6**). In addition, the number of children who responded that their condition was worse was "frequently" or "sometimes occasionally" (p < 0.05), which had no significant difference. On the other hand, many of the children who scored "low" answered "frequently" or "sometimes" to be tired or to be feeling heavy.


#### **Table 5.**

*Relationship between physical fitness test scores and lifestyle aspects.*



#### **Table 6.**

*The relationship between physical strength and athletic capability test scores and health aspect.*

## **3.7 The relationship between physical strength and athletic capability test and sleep time**

Regardless of whether the physical strength and athletic capability test scores were high or low, the percentage of sleep time on weekdays was "more than 8 hours but less than 9 hours" (**Table 7**). On the other hand, during holidays, the percentage of children with high physical strength and athletic capability test scores of "high" was "more than 8 hours but less than 9 hours, but this was not a significant difference.

### **3.8 The relationship between physical strength and athletic capability test score and obesity**

Although it was not a significant difference, there were many children whose physical strength and athletic capability test scores were "standard" and many of the


*A Study on the Relationship between Health and Physical Fitness and School Life… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110164*


#### **Table 7.**

*The relationship between physical fitness test and sleep time.*


#### **Table 8.**

*The relationship between physical fitness test score and obesity.*

children with "high" scores had "standard" body shapes (**Table 8**). However, about 20% of children who are slender and about 40% of those who are obese had "low" overall athletic capability test scores.

#### **4. Discussion**

In this study, for the purpose of clarifying the relationship between physical strength, athletic capability, school life, lifestyle, and health, we examined in detail the physical strength and athletic capability of both fifth-grade boys and girls such as their running power, jumping power, throwing power and endurance. As a result, the boys performed softball throwing repeatedly sideways, and a 20-m endurance runs while the girls performed a sit and reach test. In the physical strength test, the girls scored more than the boys. In addition, it was also suggested that children with high physical strength test scores were significantly higher in the aspects of school life, lifestyle, and health.

According to the 2016 national physical strength, athletic capability, and exercise habits survey results [9], in the fifth grade of elementary school, the average physical strength and athletic capability of boys was higher than that of girls in gripping strength, raising the upper body, repeated side jump, 20 m endurance run, standing long jump and softball throw. Moreover, the average value of girls was higher than

that of boys in the sit and reach and in the 50 m run. However, the overall score was higher for girls than boys, and the results were similar to this study.

In addition, in this study, there was a difference between the minimum and maximum values in boys which was seen in the four events: repeated side jump, 20 m shuttle run, 50 m run, and standing long jump. In women's other events, the difference between the minimum and maximum values was small, but the difference was slight. From this, it is presumed that the physical strength level of boys who can exercise and those who cannot do is more polarized in boys than girls.

The tendency of the decline in the physical strength of children has been pointed out since the mid-1980s, and since the 2000s, the tendency of bipolarization has been taken up [10]. In relation to this, there were reports (Toyoshima [11, 12]) on the tendency of children's physical activity and the tendency to become bipolar in physical strength and athletic capabilities such as frequency of exercise for middle and high school students, long jump between 10 and 20 years old, shuttle run and ball throwing from elementary school to high school students, etc. There are extreme children who have a lot of physical activity and children who have little physical activity, or both children who have good physical strength and athletic capability and children who are inferior. In other words, it was recognized as a problem of "gap" [13].

In the lower grades of elementary school, students learn various basic movements such as walking, running, jumping, avoiding, turning, falling, floating, hanging, and climbing. And in the upper grades, it becomes possible to acquire the ability to combine various movements and develop the adjustment power, but there are gender differences and individual differences in physical strength/athletic capability and type of exercise. In addition, the difference is likely to increase with age, leading to bipolarization. It is important to experience various movements during this period called Golden Age. However, instead of capturing this time uniformly, I think it is important to give exercise guidance with due consideration of the developmental stages of elementary, middle, and upper grades.

According to the Niigata Physical Fitness and Life Survey [14], students with high scores and low scores with the new physical fitness test reported differences in living conditions. Atsuko [15] conducted a child QOL survey for parents and analyzed the relationship with physical activity, and reported that there were many steps for children with high health. Reizo [16] emphasizes the link between physical activity in childhood and the mental and physical health of the child. In this study as well, it was speculated that many children with high physical strength and athletic capability have good school life and good health and that physical strength and athletic capability affect their lifestyle.

The upper grades of elementary school are said to be the beginning of the time when the mind and body grow the most in a lifetime [17]. Therefore, in order to establish a healthy lifestyle, it is essential to form basic lifestyle, exercise, and physical activity habits during this period.

Hidetoshi [18] showed that the relationship between physique and motor skills in elementary school students showed that muscle power and instantaneous power of the upper limbs during throwing were affected by height and weight development, and increased Rohrer index with weight gain. It was suggested that it may be a factor to reduce the performance of exercise with physical movement. There were many children with physical strength/exercise capability test scores of "standard" and "high" for children whose body type was "standard." For this reason, further study is necessary on the relationship between body shape and athletic capability. In addition, this study is a cross-sectional study that was limited to a single academic year, so it is

necessary to increase the number of regions and subjects and to conduct a longitudinal study in the future.
