Presidential Fitness

By Beth Swindell


Published: Thursday, August 28, 2008 at 11:04 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, August 28, 2008 at 11:13 a.m.
If the mention of a presidential physical fitness test brings back terrible memories of pull-up bars and climbing the rope in gym class, have no fear. With the new Adult Fitness Test, you can spend more time achieving a healthier lifestyle and less time trying to figure out who’s going to write you that note to get out of gym.

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Thankfully, for those of us who would rather do just about anything than go back to seventh-grade P.E., this new test ends up being less test and more guidelines for better living. The Adult Fitness Test, recently introduced by the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, is based on that famed test given to children ages 6 to 17 in schools across the country. The adult version helps people over the age of 18 determine fitness levels and make changes that lead to a better lifestyle. You may not get a certificate signed by the president at the end of it all, but you can really get into better shape.

“I think the test is a very positive thing,” says Brian Kenney, trainer and manager at O2 Fitness in Wilmington. “Obesity is an American epidemic, and having individuals test themselves to see where people are and where they need to go is a step in the right direction.” The new test measures fitness levels using four components: aerobic fitness, muscular strength, flexibility and body composition (or Body Mass Index). Each of the components focus on the FITT concept: the frequency, intensity, time and type of activity.

Nick Kentrolis from Crest Fitness in Wilmington says he’s seen the test before, but he’s glad it’s getting attention again. He sees it as a way to get people to set workout routines and stop getting taken by fads and trends in the exercise industry. “People need to know where they are and work from there,” Kentrolis says. “Based on your own fitness level, you can put together a program to get your body going, and then you can specialize from there once your level of fitness begins to increase.”

Interested in trying it yourself? Online, the program runs something like this:

For the aerobic test, you must complete a 1-mile walk or 1.5-mile run. The council cautions that if you do not practice these activities for at least 20 minutes three times per week, you should not attempt this part of the test.

The muscular strength test involves half sit-ups and push-ups in a certain time frame, and the flexibility component of the test is measured by the sit-and-reach test, all of which are explained in detail on the Web site.

The Body Mass Index test is a formula used to determine body composition. The council notes this test is not always accurate if you have high muscle mass because muscle weighs more than fat. A BMI table on the site explains what your results mean.

In effect, the Adult Fitness Test allows individuals to evaluate their health and fitness without the dreaded audience that makes many of us fear gym in the first place. You can go to the Web site, enter your data and use the results as a benchmark to help get you into shape. The calculated score will tell you which percentile you fall into for each component, and you can re-take the test as often as you would like to chart your fitness growth.

Kevin Butler, a trainer at Gold’s Gym, says understanding why you are in the gym in the first place is crucial to actually achieving the results you’re after. He sees the new fitness test as a way to set “more realistic goals” and to make fitness a yearlong priority instead of just another resolution that gets forgotten. “Adults can do just as much to improve their fitness as young people, and they should know this,” Butler says. “It is important to work out smarter as you get older and realize that it’s not a competition. It’s not a race, it’s a process.”

Are you wondering why you would take the time to go online and put yourself through what you thought you’d left behind along with homework and acne? Kenney wants to make sure his clients understand that any form of initial fitness assessment is not meant to make them feel that they are in bad shape, and this Adult Fitness Test is no different. “It is to see where you are and to focus on progress,” he says. “Use the test to help you, be consistent and dedicated, and then take it again to see where you have grown.”

The test requires you to challenge yourself and record information you may not want to acknowledge. However, in that acknowledgment, you can find the power to change and to start doing something positive about your health.

For Kentrolis, this concept is a good one because it is designed to take at least some of the focus away from weight loss and other issues that can hinder progress. “Stop worrying about losing weight and start thinking about feeling better, having more energy, getting stronger and getting more flexibility,” Kentrolis says. “Do a little more today than you did yesterday, and that, combined with diet and nutrition, will make you successful.”

Whether you use the Adult Fitness Test, a trainer or your own backyard to help figure out what kind of shape you are in, it is important to set health and fitness goals that are right for you, and of course, to keep those goals. After all, if your child is presidentially fit, shouldn’t you be, too? “It’s not how you start, but how you end,” Butler says.