A new study suggests that a person’s strength and cardiovascular fitness as an adult can be linked to behaviors established during childhood. The research indicates that exercise habits, whether healthy or unhealthy, formed during adolescence, potentially as early as age 11, can significantly influence physical health in later years.

“Not only is this polarization happening, but it continues,” says Sami Yli-Piipari, corresponding author of the study and an associate professor in the University of Georgia‘s Mary Frances Early College of Education.

According to Yli-Piipari, individuals tend to maintain the same group of habits as they age. “As you grow up, you tend to stay in the same group of habits, meaning that if you are not active and you have a little problem with your weight, that will likely remain as you age.”

The researchers emphasize that these findings could have important implications for preventing cardiovascular disease and obesity.

The research team assessed activity levels, agility, endurance, and muscle strength in over 1,100 fifth-grade students. They also conducted body composition analyses to determine the overall fitness levels of the participants.

The study identified four distinct patterns among the children after monitoring them for a period of four years:

• Children with extremely low fitness levels, motor competence, overweight, and only low-to-moderate physical activity.
• Children with poor fitness levels and motor competence but healthy weight.
• Children with above average fitness levels in all factors and healthy indicators.
• Children with high levels in all fitness factors and healthy indicators.

Almost half of the children involved in the study were classified into the two less healthy profiles,characterized by a higher body mass index. More then half of the children in these less healthy categories were girls.

The study revealed that children generally remained within their initial categories as they aged, suggesting that established fitness habits were challenging to change.

“These profiles are quite stable,which is something that we have to take action on,” says Yli-Piipari.

yli-Piipari stresses the importance of early intervention: “We have to make sure that when children are young, they have positive support for activities that improve their health. It is indeed challenging to become more active or to stay active.”

The group with the healthiest indicators was the moast likely to experience changes in their habits over time, and these changes were often negative, with activity levels slightly decreasing.

The study linked less healthy behaviors to a greater risk of cardiovascular disease and childhood obesity.

“there are so many cardiovascular risk factors that are genetic or biological, but obviously health is also a big part of it.Cardiovascular diseases are,in the long run,life-threatening diseases,so cardiovascular health is so important,” Yli-Piipari says.

The researchers recommend initiating healthy habits early in life to mitigate health risks in vulnerable teenagers and maintaining these routines in others.

“Where can you learn those skills about your health?” says Yli-Piipari. “That’s school, physical education, and clubs. We want to encourage parents to engage and take their kids to these kinds of activities-not even for them to be great athletes but to learn different kinds of skills and habits.”

For adults seeking to change or improve their habits,Yli-Piipari notes that while starting new exercise routines can be challenging,it is not impractical.

“It’s never to late to start being active,” he says.”If you find something that you like to do,you can totally change your behaviors and reduce your cardiovascular disease risks.”