Phase-specific changes in anthropometric and physical fitness outcomes among Chinese upper-secondary students before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic: the moderating role of educational track

These findings demonstrate that large-scale societal disruptions, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, can alter adolescent physical fitness in domain- and context-specific ways, reshaping developmental patterns and inequality dynamics rather than uniformly depressing fitness levels. The educational track plays a critical role in moderating vulnerability and recovery across fitness domains, underscoring the need for fitness monitoring and intervention strategies that are sensitive to both domain-specific characteristics and the educational context.