The Presidential Fitness Test - for Adults

Posted May 16, 2008 at 02:00 PM by Martinique Haller

Section: Her Fitness, Athletics, Calculators & Tools, Her Health

Perhaps, like me, you remember hanging from the pull-up bar in third grade for the flex-arm hang until you positively quivered and shook just to beat out your best friend.  Well, now is your chance to do it all again!

On May 14th, The President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports released a test very similar to the one you remember (oh so fondly) from elementary school.  Although the website says that “Many baby boomers remember taking the youth fitness test when they were in elementary school,” many of us Gen-Xers took the very same test a generation later.  The early test was spurred by a study in the 1940s and 1950s that compared American school children’s performance in activities “which included activities such as leg lifts, sit-ups, trunk lifts, and toe touches” with European school children of the same age.  According to a ’History of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports,’ “56 percent of the U.S. students failed at least one of the test components,” but “only about 8 percent of the European children failed even one of the test components.” If you look at this graph which compares the BMI of Adults over age 15 in a number of developed countries, the U.S is significantly more obese than all the other countries like France, Japan, and Australia. Just like in the 1950s, this might be the reason behind the new test for adults.

If you go the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports’ website you can take the test and log your results to see how you measure up - just like in third grade!  The test measures aerobic fitness, muscular strength and endurance, flexibility, and body composition. I haven’t had a chance to take the test yet, but I’m excited to see how I’ll do. Take the test Her Active Life readers, and let us know in the comments how you did.