April 2, 2023, 4:13 pm | Read time: 3 minutes

Do parents pass on their endurance, flexibility, grip strength, and muscle strength to their children? A Canadian study investigated this. The results show, among other things, that girls and boys do not benefit equally from every fitness aspect of their parents.

Endurance and Muscle Strength

In general, a child’s aerobic fitness (endurance performance), muscle strength, and flexibility correlate with that of their parents, according to the Canadian study from 2021.¹ However, the researchers found differences regarding the gender of parents and children in individual aspects of fitness: Aerobic fitness is apparently mainly inherited from mothers to their sons–and flexibility from fathers to their daughters.

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Fitness Aspects Mothers Pass to Sons and Fathers to Daughters

The researchers found that boys whose mothers have excellent cardiorespiratory fitness (referring to the ability of breathing and circulation to supply the body with oxygen–keyword VO2max) have significantly better fitness than sons of mothers with deficits in this area. On the other hand, girls with a flexible father are significantly more flexible than daughters of fathers with deficits in mobility. This was examined using the so-called “Sit & Reach Test,” where one sits and reaches toward the feet with their hands. The test provides information about the flexibility of the trunk and lower body.

Grip Strength from Mother and Father

The significant correlation in mother-son and father-daughter pairs is limited to endurance performance and flexibility. Grip strength is a bit different: Girls can inherit this from both parents–boys, however, only from their mothers. Grip strength, therefore, does not pass from father to son.

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How the Researchers Proceeded

For the study, the Canadian statistics agency evaluated health data from the “Canadian Health Measures Survey,” a continuous survey by the statistics and health agency that collects detailed data from Canadian citizens aged 3 to 79. For the study on the connection between the fitness level of parents and children, a representative sample of children aged six to eleven and at least one biological parent was evaluated. For cardiorespiratory fitness, there were 615 children aged eight to eleven, for muscle strength 1,319 children, and in the flexibility sample, 1,295 were considered. The data were collected in three periods, from 2007 to 2009, from 2009 to 2011, and from 2016 to 2017.

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Criticism of the Study

The research team points out that the analysis was limited to biological parents who participated in the survey. They tended to be younger, had a bachelor’s degree or higher education, came from smaller households with a household income of more than 100,000 Canadian dollars per year. Therefore, the study’s results cannot necessarily be applied to lower-income families, large families, or children with older parents. Additionally, it should be considered that the aerobic test, which was part of the study, is actually only intended for adults. It may be that only “somewhat healthier” children were included in the sample from the outset, according to the researchers.

Source

• Ottawa City News (2021): StatCan study finds some correlation between child and parent fitness levels (accessed on 03/31/2023)