European children and adolescents have become weaker, less flexible, and physically less fit than earlier generations over the past six decades, researchers at the University of Zaragoza revealed.
The comprehensive systematic review, published in the journal Sports Medicine-Open, analyzed physical testing data from 417,362 children aged six to 16 across 20 European nations between 1965 and 2023.
The study evaluated routine physical fitness exercises long used in school physical education classes, including shuttle runs, standing long jumps, bar hangs, and body bending to touch toes. Across nearly six decades of data, researchers found that European youth currently present lower muscle strength, reduced flexibility, and poorer body composition compared to cohorts evaluated in earlier decades.
Decades of physical performance testing
Lower body muscle strength, measured through exercises such as horizontal jumping, initially improved during the earliest years of the historical data set. However, lower body strength performance began a steady decline in the 1980s that has continued through the most recent measurements recorded in 2023.
Upper body muscle strength showed an even earlier downturn, with performance metrics beginning to deteriorate during the 1970s. Flexibility measurements demonstrated an uninterrupted decrease over time, with the rate of decline accelerating noticeably from the year 2000 onward.
Cardiorespiratory capacity, which measures the body's ability to sustain effort and supply oxygen to working muscles, followed a more complex trajectory. Endurance levels improved steadily until the 1980s before entering a multi-decade decline, although data collected from 2015 onward suggests a slight improvement.
Health risks of juvenile physical decline
The researchers emphasized that physical fitness testing serves as a vital clinical marker of general health during childhood and adolescence rather than merely measuring athletic performance. Cardiorespiratory endurance, muscle strength, body composition, and flexibility form key components used by medical professionals to evaluate juvenile health.
Lower cardiorespiratory capacity is directly linked to cardiovascular risk factors, whereas higher endurance and healthy body composition are associated with favorable cardiometabolic profiles. Furthermore, youth muscular strength plays a critical role in metabolic indicators and long-term bone health.
While a single child jumping a shorter distance or running slower than a peer from 30 years ago does not constitute a health emergency, researchers warned that consistent drops across hundreds of thousands of children over decades represent a broad population signal. Childhood and adolescence are decisive stages for building physical capacity and habits that become significantly harder to acquire in adulthood, creating a lost opportunity that will be difficult to recover.
Physical activity recommendations and policy shifts
The World Health Organization recommends that children and adolescents engage in an average of at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity daily. The global health agency also advises incorporating exercises targeting muscle and bone strengthening at least three days per week. However, the study noted that more than three out of four European adolescents fail to reach these physical activity targets.
Over the nearly 60 years covered by the review, European lifestyle patterns transformed substantially, including shifts in dietary habits, urban design, leisure activities, and transportation modes. Although the systematic review established clear historical downward trends, the authors noted that the study design does not isolate a single definitive cause or prove that specific technologies or social shifts are solely responsible.
Investigators from the EXER-Genud research group at the University of Zaragoza advocate for public policies that actively support youth in reaching physical activity recommendations. They noted that past health campaigns focused broadly on encouraging children to move more, but argued that future public health messaging must refine instructions to focus on exercise quality, muscle strengthening, and the long-term impact of exercise patterns on future health.
