Identifying the Physiological Differences between Children and Adults

Physiological Differences Between Children and Adults
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Physiological Differences Between Children and Adults
There exist some fundamental physiological differences between children and adults. These differences inevitably affect exercise assessment and must be considered while designing an exercise program. Children have replaced most of their exercise time with screen time in the modern world. Experts argue that this phenomenon has contributed to the global epidemic of juvenile obesity (Wisloff & Lavie, 2017). This paper will focus on identifying the physiological differences between children and adults. The paper will also discuss how these differences affect exercise assessment and program design.
One of the key physiological differences between children and adults is that children have a relatively higher basal metabolic rate. Children have a higher surface area to volume ratio (Berens et al., 2017). Consequently, they are likely to generate more heat than adults. While carrying out exercise assessment, it may be important to consider this difference and fine-tune the exercise program to accommodate these details. For instance, it might be important to ensure that the child gets lightweight exercises.
Additionally, to ensure that the greater heat loss is compensated for, it is important to ensure that the program is regularly designed to replenish the child's fluids. During hot days, children are likely to experience relatively elevated sweating compared to adults. Research has shown that, like adults, children often drink less water/ fluids than they should during exercise. Consequently, it is appropriate to ensure that water needs a...