A Worrying Trend in the Physical Condition of the First-Year Students of Tomsk State University

The present study aimed to monitor the physical condition of first-year students of Tomsk State University (TSU). The authors selected five tests to determine the level of their physical condition. They tested first-year undergraduate students who previously had a medical examination. Students' endurance was assessed by running at 2,600 m for boys and 1,800 m for girls. In the 2006 academic year, boys' endurance was 10.8±0.6 min, while girls' endurance was 9.5±0.6. This is the best indicator for all the years of observation. Starting from the 2008 academic year, students run these control distances statistically significantly slower compared to the first year of the study. The speed-strength qualities of students were assessed on the basis of the standing broad jump test. The analysis of the results of the seven-year monitoring showed a negative trend, namely a stable deterioration of the speed-power qualities of young people. The students' flexibility was assessed using the "bend forward while standing on a bench, distance from the finger tips to the support" test. When studying the dynamics of the level of manifestation of flexibility in girls studying at TSU, there were no statistically significant changes in this indicator. At the same time, boys revealed a significant decrease in flexibility in the 2007, 2010, 2012, 2016, 2017 academic years compared with the first year of observation. The study of physical strength among students was carried out using the push-up test for girls and the pull-up test for boys. When analyzing the strength qualities of the girls, it was found that in the 2006 academic year the average value turned out to be 5.1±0.4. All subsequent years there has been an increase in power in students. At the same time, attention is drawn to the fact that in the 2014 academic year first-year students showed the best strength values for all the years of observation. In the following two years, there was a significant decrease in the power qualities of girls who entered TSU, and in 2017 girls showed minimal values. During the 2006-2008 academic years, boys who entered TSU demonstrated a stable level of manifestation of strength qualities. In the 2010 academic year, there is a statistically significant increase in the number of test repetitions, and in subsequent years there is a dynamics of decline in power qualities of first-year students. The speed characteristics of boys and girls were assessed using the 100 meters running test. The analysis of the dynamics of students' speed characteristics did not reveal any significant changes over the entire period of monitoring. So, based on the seven-year monitoring of first-year students who entered TSU from 2006 to 2017 the authors revealed a significant deterioration of physical condition indicators (except for strength qualities) of both girls and boys. The results of the analysis show that teachers working with freshmen need to adjust their working programs to take into account the changes in the initial level of students' physical condition.

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