Effects of physical exercise on body composition and health-related physical fitness in schoolchildren
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v85.119907Keywords:
Body composition , health-related physical fitness, physical activity, physical exercise, schoolchildrenAbstract
Introduction: Organized physical exercise at school may support active life-styles and contribute to improvements in body and functional health indicators among students.
Objective: To determine the effect of a circuit-based physical exercise program on body composition and health-related physical fitness in schoolchildren.
Methods: A quantitative, quasi-experimental, longitudinal study was conduct-ed with baseline and final assessments. The sample included 82 students from a Colombian educational institution, distributed into a control group and an experimental group, with 41 participants in each group. The control group continued regular physical education classes, whereas the experimental group completed a 12-week circuit-based intervention, with three 50-minute sessions per week. Body composition was assessed through anthropometric measurements, and physi-cal fitness was evaluated using the ALPHA-Fitness test battery.
Results: After the intervention, the control group showed minimal changes in the assessed variables. In contrast, the experimental group showed reductions in body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, and body fat percentage, along with improvements in handgrip strength, standing long jump, speed-agility, and cardiorespiratory fitness.
Discussion: The findings indicate that a structured school-based circuit train-ing program may promote positive changes in morphological and functional components, particularly when applied with adequate frequency and progression over several weeks.
Conclusions: Circuit-based physical exercise is a feasible strategy to complement school physical education and enhance students’ body composition and physical fitness.
References
Aubert, S., Barnes, J. D., Demchenko, I., Hawthorne, M., Abdeta, C., Nader, P. A., et al. (2022). Global Ma-trix 4.0 Physical Activity Report Card Grades for Children and Adolescents: Results and analyses from 57 countries. Journal of Physical Activity and Health, 19(11), 700–728. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1123/jpah.2022-0456
Bull, F. C., Al-Ansari, S. S., Biddle, S., Borodulin, K., Buman, M. P., Cardon, G., et al. (2020). World Health Organization 2020 guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 54(24), 1451–1462. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2020-102955
Demchenko, I., et al. (2025). Cardiorespiratory fitness and health in children and adolescents. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 59(12), 856–864. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2024-109184
Galvani, C., et al. (2024). Health-related field-based fitness tests: Normative values for Italian school children. Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology, 9(4), 190. Doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/jfmk9040190
Guthold, R., Stevens, G. A., Riley, L. M., & Bull, F. C. (2020). Global trends in insufficient physical activity among adolescents: A pooled analysis of 298 population-based surveys with 1.6 million partici-pants. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 4(1), 23–35. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/s2352-4642(19)30323-2
Hassan, M. A., et al. (2024). Comparative effectiveness of school-based obesity prevention programs for children and adolescents: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. Frontiers in Public Health. Doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1504279
Marques, A., Henriques-Neto, D., Peralta, M., Martins, J., Gomes, F., Popovic, S., Masanovic, B., Deme-triou, Y., Schlund, A., & Ihle, A. (2021). Field-based health-related physical fitness tests in chil-dren and adolescents: A systematic review. Frontiers in Pediatrics, 9, 640028. https://doi.org/10.3389/fped.2021.640028
Montealegre Suárez, Diana Paola, Ramos González, Edna Paola, & Romaña Cabrera, Luisa Fernanda. (2022). Effects of high intensity intermittent training on lipid profile and blood glucose overweight/obese university students. Revista Cuidarte, 13(3), e2624. Epub March 31, 2023.https://doi.org/10.15649/cuidarte.2624
Montealegre Suárez, D. P., Ramos Garzón, E. P., Salazar Rojas, D. M., Pérez Hernández, L. A., Hueso Gar-zón, D. F., & Pérez Rodríguez, C. Y. (2026). Efectos del ejercicio físico mediante un dispositivo electrónico de luces led vs el entrenamiento HIIT sobre la composición corporal en estudiantes universitarios. Acción Motriz, 38(1), 74–82. https://doi.org/10.65330/am.v38i1.430
Montealegre Suárez, D. P., Camargo Valderrama, M. A., Ramos González, E. P., Tamayo Perdomo, G., Lerma Castaño, P. R., Pérez Rodríguez, C. Y., Hueso Garzón, D. F., Pérez Hernández, L. A., & Cor-tes Delgado, D. C. (2026). Efectos del ejercicio físico en el perfil lipídico de adultos mayores. Re-tos, 76, 436-445. https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v76.117888
NCD Risk Factor Collaboration. (2017). Worldwide trends in body-mass index, underweight, overweight, and obesity from 1975 to 2016. The Lancet, 390(10113), 2627–2642. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(17)32129-3/fulltext
Ortega, F. B., Leskošek, B., Blagus, R., Gil-Cosano, J. J., Mäestu, J., Tomkinson, G. R., et al. (2023). Euro-pean fitness landscape for children and adolescents: Updated reference values, fitness maps and country rankings based on nearly 8 million test results from 34 countries gathered by the Fit-Back network. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 57(5), 299–310. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2022-106176
Ortega, F. B., et al. (2024). The Youth Fitness International Test (YFIT) battery for monitoring and sur-veillance among children and adolescents: A modified Delphi consensus project with 169 ex-perts from 50 countries and territories. Journal of Sport and Health Science. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jshs.2024.101012
Patiño-Palma, B. E. (2019). Factores asociados a la condición física relacionada con la salud en escola-res de la ciudad de Dosquebradas Risaralda. Revista Investigación en Salud Universidad de Bo-yacá, 6(2), 118–136. https://doi.org/10.24267/23897325.343
Ruiz, J. R., Castro-Piñero, J., España-Romero, V., Artero, E. G., Ortega, F. B., Cuenca, M. M., et al. (2011). Field-based fitness assessment in young people: The ALPHA health-related fitness test battery for children and adolescents. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 45(6), 518–524. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsm.2010.075341
Smith, J. J., Eather, N., Morgan, P. J., Plotnikoff, R. C., Faigenbaum, A. D., & Lubans, D. R. (2014). The health benefits of muscular fitness for children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Medicine, 44, 1209–1223. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-014-0196-4
Stojanović, N., Stupar, D., Marković, M., Trajković, N., Aleksić, D., Pašić, G., Koničanin, A., Zadražnik, M., & Stojanović, T. (2023). School-based circuit training intervention improves local muscular en-durance in primary school students: A randomized controlled trial. Children, 10(4), 726. https://doi.org/10.3390/children10040726
Uscatgeui Ciendua, A. J., Hernández, S. J., & Herrera, W. G. (2024). El estado de la condición física y de composición corporal en escolares colombianos de 11 a 17 años. Retos, 51, 1536–1542. https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v51.99877
Vidarte Claros, J. A., Vélez Álvarez, C., Arango Arenas, A., & Parra Sánchez, J. H. (2022). Valores percenti-les de la condición física saludable en escolares. Retos, 43, 162–170. Doi: https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v43i0.88112
Wang, H., et al. (2026). Effects of school-based physical activity interventions on cardiorespiratory fitness and body composition in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis using the RE-AIM framework. Public Health, 252, 106141. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2026.106141
Wu, J., et al. (2023). Comparative effectiveness of school-based exercise interventions on physical fit-ness in children and adolescents: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. Frontiers in Public Health, 11, 1194779. Doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1194779
Zhou, X., et al. (2024). Effects of different types of exercise intensity on improving health-related phy-sical fitness in children and adolescents: A systematic review. Scientific Reports. 14:14301 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-64830-x
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Juan José Perdomo Trujillo, Maira Alejandra Camargo Valderrama, Diana Paola Montealegre Suárez, Edna Paola Ramos González, Omar Leonardo Cuellar Arciniegas
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and ensure the magazine the right to be the first publication of the work as licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of authorship of the work and the initial publication in this magazine.
- Authors can establish separate additional agreements for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in the journal (eg, to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Is allowed and authors are encouraged to disseminate their work electronically (eg, in institutional repositories or on their own website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as to a subpoena more Early and more of published work (See The Effect of Open Access) (in English).
This journal provides immediate open access to its content (BOAI, http://legacy.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/boaifaq.htm#openaccess) on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. The authors may download the papers from the journal website, or will be provided with the PDF version of the article via e-mail.
