Kettlebell-classroom Training

NCT ID: NCT06910085

Last Updated: 2025-04-04

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 92 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2024-10-21
• Study Completion Date: 2024-12-06

Brief Summary

Physical fitness is a crucial health marker, predicting both cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. Muscular strength, an essential component of physical fitness, underpins physical and psychological well-being, particularly from childhood. Increasing sedentary behavior has led to rising obesity and cardiovascular disease rates in children, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the emergence of pediatric dynapenia. Muscular fitness positively affects body composition, bone health, psychological health, and academic performance, and is necessary for fundamental motor skills.

In Basel, a ten-year trend shows declining physical fitness and rising obesity among primary school children, especially those from lower socio-economic backgrounds with less access to sports. This presents an opportunity to promote physical activity in schools. The "Kettlebell Classroom" project aims to introduce daily, playful resistance training with kettlebells over seven weeks in various schools, focusing on culturally and socially less integrated children.

Evidence supports the benefits of resistance training (RT) for children, including increased joint stability, improved motor skills, reduced injury risks, and increased spontaneous physical activity. Despite WHO recommendations for muscle and bone-strengthening activities three times a week, these guidelines are often unmet. This project aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of short, intensive exercise sessions for children, with the goal of expanding the initiative across Basel to improve health outcomes for all children.

Detailed Description

Study intervention The intervention emphasizes full-body exercises which are performed with the own body weight and kettlebells. On every weekday, the intervention classes will receive 15 min of supervised training over 7 weeks. This results in a total number of training sessions of 35 sessions. The movements and exercises in all phases are based on functional, multi-joint movements. The focus will be on age-appropriate whole-body strength and motor skill development. It will be designed with different, varying exercises, which can be individually tailored and adapted to the children's ability. Tailored to the group, the sessions will also include parts which engage social cooperation and teamwork, so that the children will experience a sense of competence, self-determination and enjoyment of exercise while enhancing motor skills and athletic ability.

Conditions

Child Development; Schools; Primary Health Care; Resistance Training; Muscle Strength; Feasibility Studies; Schools / Organization & Administration; Preventive Health Services

Study Design

• Allocation Method: NON_RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: PREVENTION
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

kettlebell training

The intervention involves daily, supervised resistance training sessions for primary school children, integrated directly into the classroom setting. Over a period of 7 weeks, participating second-grade school classes perform 15-minute kettlebell-based workouts every school day, totaling 35 sessions.

The sessions are designed to be:

Playful and age-appropriate

Focused on whole-body strength and motor skill development

Based on functional, multi-joint movements using bodyweight and kettlebells

Adaptable to individual ability levels

Including elements of teamwork and cooperation to enhance motivation and enjoyment

The goal is to improve muscular strength, coordination, fitness, and psychosocial well-being, particularly in children from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

kettlebell-training

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

15 min of body weight or kettlebell loaded strength training

regular schedule - control

The control group consists of parallel second-grade school classes that do not receive any active intervention during the study period. These students continue with their regular school routine and standard physical education classes, without the additional kettlebell training sessions.

Like the intervention group, they:

Undergo the same pre- and post-intervention test battery assessing strength, coordination, fitness, and anthropometric measures

Are assessed during school hours using identical equipment and protocols

Serve as a baseline comparator to evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of the resistance training intervention

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

kettlebell-training

15 min of body weight or kettlebell loaded strength training

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• all of the selected second-graders who can participate in physical education lessons will be included in the study

Exclusion Criteria

• Children with a medical certificate, that prohibits physical activity, will be excluded from performance testing and training intervention.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 6 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 9 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Locations

Department of Sport, Exercise and Health

Basel, Basellandschaft, Switzerland

Countries

Switzerland

Other Identifiers

2024-01074

Identifier Type: OTHER

Identifier Source: secondary_id

2024-01074

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id