Are kids today as strong as their parents or grandparents were as children?

By analyzing decades of data from 19 countries on childrens' physical fitness, researchers found that overall kids today have stronger grips than their parents and grandparents. But gains from previous generations in abdominal endurance and leg power peaked around 2000 and have been declining since.

The vertical axis compares relative changes in muscle fitness over time to baseline muscle fitness in the year 2000. Researchers reviewed data collected between 1967 and 2017 on tens of millions of kids aged 9 to 17 years, mostly from high- and upper-middle-income countries.
Chart: The Conversation, CC-BY-ND Source: Tomkinson et al. Get the data