A new study has shown that starting exercise at an early age can have positive benefits in the adult years, including a reduction in body mass.
University of California, Riverside researchers did experiments on mice in the lab, where they evaluated the effects of early exercise on adult physical activity, body mass, food consumption and circulating leptin levels.
They found that early-age exercise in mice has positive effects on adult levels of voluntary exercise in addition to reducing body mass - results that may have relevance for the public policy debates concerning the importance of physical education for children.
Professor Theodore Garland, who led the research, said if kids exercised regularly through their school years, they might be more likely to exercise as adults, which could have far-reaching positive effects on human health and well-being.
Study results appear online in Physiology and Behavior.