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PROVO -- Some health experts say schools need to do a lot more to help slow down rising obesity rates among children.
Co-founder of the National Council for Exercise Standards Frederick Hahn says if schools want to help stop obesity, kids should be doing strength or resistance training to boost their metabolism at school.
Todd Billings with the Provo School District says they follow state fitness guidelines, but he says the schools don't have the resources or the time to focus on individual student strength training.
And for the younger kids, he says the time and resources aren't available for strength training.
Billings agrees it would be nice if the kids could get a lot more physical activity. Obesity among children ages 6 to 11 has more than doubled over the past 20 years, going from 6.5 percent in 1980 to 17 percent in 2006, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. The rate among adolescents aged 12 to 19 has more than tripled.
Billings says the focus of the schools is literacy and numeracy, not individual strength training.
E-mail: rjeppesen@ksl.com
