Giving Compass' Take:

• According to a new study, homeschooled children may have significantly lower abdominal strength and endurance than public school students who are required to take part in physical education programs.

• How can homeschool parents take more measures to keep their kids active?

• Here are five advantages of homeschooling. 

This was despite no significant difference between the two groups in measurements of body mass index, the researchers found.

The study compares specific health metrics between two sets of students age 12 to 17 who have been a focus of the researchers over the past couple of years.

While previous work showed homeschoolers should expect no added risk to their general health over time, the new study draws a few disparities from a dataset Laura Kabiri, a lecturer at Rice University, gathered at Texas Woman’s University.

Public school students in the study proved significantly better at performing curl-ups, a metric that measures abdominal strength and endurance.

Their daily use of backpacks weighing up to 25% of their body weight, sufficient to engage core-stabilizing muscles, could explain that, the researchers write.

“This is actually a hot topic in pediatric health and wellness and I don’t want anyone to think we are encouraging students to carry heavy loads in their backpacks,” Kabiri says.

“We all know that carrying heavy backpacks can lead to musculoskeletal problems. In fact, the American Chiropractic Association recommends a backpack weigh no more than 5-10% of a student’s body weight.

“However, we are hypothesizing that heavy backpack use among public schoolers could be one explanation for the difference in core strength seen in our study,” she says.

“Improper instruction and form for abdominal exercises among homeschoolers is another. We really don’t know the root cause but do see a difference. This is why we as health and wellness professionals need to do a better job reaching out to the home-school community,” she says.

Read the full article about the fitness gap between public and homeschool students by Jeff Falk at Futurity.