[Personal sports training in the management of obese boys aged 12 to 16 years].

Objective: Estimation of both physical and psychological effects of an adapted physical training on children undergoing an obesity treatment.

Material And Methods: The survey was carried out on 36 obese boys (ages = 12-16 years) who stayed in the medical center for at least four months. Eighteen of them were trained with the SELF method (the SELF-training is global, progressive, adapted to each boy, controlled and takes place within a ten-week period with five sessions a fortnight, each session lasting 30 to 40 minutes). The parameters that were studied concerned auxology, breathing function exploration, aerobic and anaerobic capacities, muscle strength and psychomotor qualities; the subjective effects of the training were estimated with a questionnaire about life quality, and the hand test. At inclusion the results were reported to a standard kind of population. At the end of the training the results of the 18 boys that were trained were compared to those of the 18 controls.

Results: Compared to a standard population, the obese children' aerobic capacity is diminished for the maximum power but is identical in absolute value for the VO2 max; their anaerobic capacities, muscle strength and psychomotor capacities are lower and their psyche is affected by the disease. After a three-month training period and after comparison with the 'control' group, there can be noticed a significant improvement in the psychomotor capacities, a major tendency for the improvement of the aerobic capacities and very positive effects on the psyche.

Conclusion: SELF-training in association with dietetics appears to be very useful in the therapeutic care of obese children. For the follow-up at home it would need to be registered within the domain of physiotherapy.