Nível de aptidão física relacionada à saúde em crianças praticantes de natação

The aim of the present study was to evaluate and compare the levels of health - related physical fitness among swimmers and non - swimmers living in a small city in the interior of Minas Gerais. We evaluated children aged 7 to 10 years, athletes and non-swimming athletes. To obtain the data, a battery of PROESP-BR tests was used for physical fitness related to health. For statistical analysis, the Shapiro-Wilk test was used, followed by the Student's T test to compare the means between the two groups evaluated. The level of significance was 5%. The results demonstrated that swimming practice was able to improve flexibility, abdominal resistance and general resistance, without modification of body mass index (BMI), wingspan, waist circumference and waist / height ratio in practicing children, when compared to non-practitioners. It was concluded that children who practice swimming improved physical fitness related to health.