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The Presidential Fitness Challenge
The
Presidential fitness challenge is a concept brought forth by the United
States government to encourage children and elders alike to take up
regular exercise routines so as to remain fit and to ward off illness,
disease and obesity. A noble thought in fact considering the dark
reality that a large percentage of illnesses and diseases are caused due
to lack of exercise or a flawed diet plan. In the Presidential fitness
challenge the focus is not on the type of activity you choose, but how
well you are performing with the selected activity and how motivated you
are becoming by the time you complete the process. According to this
governmental initiative, every individual has to indulge in certain
types of physical activity for a definite period of time daily, 5 days a
week, for 6 continuous weeks. For children, the exercise time is
stipulated to be one hour and for elders, it is 30 minutes at least per
day. The performances over this period of time are recorded and
considered for the award after a thorough analysis and comparison with
other performances.
As a
regular practice, students in grades 3-5 take part in the Presidential
fitness challenge every fall and spring. For them, the challenge usually
involves five rounds that tests the students' physical abilities against
different benchmarks. The purpose of this process is to test their
endurance and to motivate the students to improve from challenge to
challenge by the time the five parts are exhausted. In the five parts,
those who score more than 90% in each part will be awarded the
Presidential Fitness Award, and students who secure 50% or more in each
of the five sections are bestowed the National Fitness Award.
The five
parts in the Presidential Fitness Challenge include:
-
Curl-ups or Crunches –
The students have to lie flat on their backs with their feet firmly
attached to the floor, and then raise their backs completely off the
ground for a short duration of time, to make the count. The
challenge in its whole is about how many curl-ups one can make in a
minute. This exercise tests and builds over a period of time,
abdominal strength/endurance.
-
Distance Run – A one mile
run where the time taken by each student is noted. For 8-9 years,
the distance is half a mile. The purpose of this challenge is to
measure the cardiovascular endurance of each student. Students are
encouraged to improve their timings as each week passes by.
-
Sit-n-Reach – Students
sit with their feet against a sit-n-reach box and stretch themselves
to reach as far as possible along the measuring scale/line. This is
to test flexibility. Repeatedly doing this exercise would improve
the flexibility by leaps and bounds.
-
Shuttle Run – This
challenge measures the time taken by each student to run 30 feet
from a starting line, pick up a bean bag from the other end, bring
it back to the starting point, repeating the procedure twice. Each
participant's coordination and speed is tested in this challenge.
-
Pull Ups – Students are
required to do the maximum number of pull ups in a stipulated time.
This tests the upper body strength of every participant.
The
performance of every student is recorded daily, for each challenge, and
the best of the performers are rewarded in the end.
Adults can
participate in the challenge, however the plan will have to undergo some
modifications. The goals are similar to that of children, and the same
frequency has to be maintained, but, as mentioned earlier, only 30
minutes is allowed instead of an hour.
For further
info about the presidential fitness challenge, sign up at
www.presidentschallenge.org or read similar articles available on
the World Wide Web. You can find many websites on this subject.
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