Research: Kids' Fitness Is on the Decline

(NECN/NBC News: Erika Edwards) - The track team at Crestdale Middle School in Matthews, N.C. works hard, but according to new research, put them toe-to-toe in a one-mile race around the track with their parents when they were this age - and mom and dad would have left them in their dust.

"The typical American child in the year 2000 would finish 3/4 to 1 lap behind the typical American child from the 1970s," explains the University of South Australia's Dr. Grant Tomkinson.

Dr. Tomkinson compared physical fitness test results of more than 25-million kids from the 1960s through 2010.

Over time he found an 18-percent drop-off in cardiovascular fitness levels. It appears kids today cannot run as fast or as far as their predecessors from 30 years ago.

Read more: http://on.today.com/1hVjeSM

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