Secondary school boys in Ireland appear to be much fitter than girls, new research suggests.

The findings were launched by Irish Life Health as part of its awards ceremony for the 2016 Schools Fitness Challenge. This challenge, now in its fifth year, involves showing students simple steps with the aim of improving their fitness levels over a six-week period.

Over one-quarter of all secondary schools in the country signed up for the 2016 challenge - more than 22,700 students. The programme is overseen by exercise expert, Prof Niall Moyna, of Dublin City University and since it began in 2012, over 126,000 students have taken part.

"Any form of physical activity is better than none. We should move away from the rigidity of the current PE curriculum to short periods of physical activity that encourage senior cycle students, particularly girls to stay active," Prof Moyna commented.

The latest research revealed that girls are less likely than boys to meet the minimum daily physical activity recommendations for optimal health. Furthermore, this becomes more pronounced as teenagers get older - in 1st year, boys are 32% fitter than girls, but by 4th year, they are 42% fitter.

"The physical, psychological and social benefits of sport and exercise have been well documented, but unfortunately as this research shows, we still see reduced participation levels in Irish adolescent girls compared to boys. Numerous reasons have been put forward to explain this including losing interest, limited time, perceived lack of competence in competitive settings and fear of appearing ‘uncool' or ‘unfeminine'," explained Dr Kate Kirby of the Irish Institute of Sport.

However, over the last five years, the Schools Fitness Challenge has shown that big fitness gains can be made in a relatively short period of time and these can have a positive impact on students' motivation and self-confidence.

Dr Kirby also believes other things can also be done to stop girls from dropping out of sport, including the provision of single-sex physical activities and placing less emphasis on competition.

"Also, the benefit of promoting positive athletic female role models cannot be underestimated," she added.

Meanwhile the schools found to be Ireland's fittest last year were:
-Mixed - Presentation Secondary School, Milltown in Kerry
-Boys only - St Macartan's College, Monaghan
-Girls only - Mount Anville Secondary School, Dublin.

Studies have shown that physical fitness can benefit academic performance and it is also essential for long-term health.

"Research we recently published showed that 75% of unfit 15-year-old boys had high blood pressure and 62% were at a high risk of developing type 2 diabetes. These are incredibly worrying statistics. Exercise should be viewed as medicine, as it can positively influence current and future physical and mental health. Greater emphasis should be placed on promoting physical activity and other healthy lifestyle behaviours among students," Prof Moyna added.