[Association between indicators of physical fitness and body weight status in high school students]

Introduction: the components of physical fitness have become very important to determine health problems in schoolchildren. Objective: to analyze the association between physical condition indicators (PCIs), body weight status, and metabolic risk in high school students. Methods: a cross-sectional study where 531 schoolchildren were evaluated - 271 women (51 %) and 260 men (49 %) between 11 and 15 years old. The Alpha Fitness battery was used to analyze PCIs and the Pacer test to estimate VO2max; waist circumference (WC) was measured as an indicator of obesity and metabolic risk. The students were classified according to their BMI and WC. Results: PCIs showed a poor performance in all schoolchildren in the variables of flexibility (81 %), sit-ups (97.7 %), push-ups (95.3 %), speed (99.2 %) and VO2max (64.8 %). Obese schoolchildren have significantly lower performance in flexibility, strength and speed (< 0.001) when compared to non-obese schoolchildren. On the other hand, there is a negative relationship between WC as indicator of metabolic risk and flexibility, sit-ups, and push-ups. Men are at higher metabolic risk than women. Conclusions: the relationship between HCI and obesity shows that schoolchildren with higher BMI and higher metabolic risk are those with lower performance. That is why educational policies should focus on improving the components of physical fitness to reduce obesity and metabolic risk in schoolchildren.