Fitness Benchmarks

Tomorrow is the first day of testing for my my students. I am going to use these benchmarks from the President's Fitness Challenge and the Fitnessgram "Zones" when comparing my students results.

Trial and Error

I have decided that I am going to hold off on choosing a specific fitness program. Instead, I am going to choose specific activities to test my students on and use the programs I have researched as guidelines. Once I see how that goes, I can further investigate which program I am going to use to track my students progress. For right now, I will give each student and index card to record their results and I will keep them in my office. On Monday, students  in PE class will run the timed mile and perform the pull-up test.. On Tuesday, they will be tested on sit-ups and push-ups, as well as the shuttle run. This takes care of only 1/4 of the school so I will be testing every Friday for this month with a different group of students. The 5th and 6th graders seem really excited for this fitness test, where as only a small handful, of 7th and 8th graders seem excited. The level of excitement makes me want to use the President's Fitness Challenge so that they receive and award or a badge. I could also create my own award to give to them. Has anyone done that before?

President's Challenge Fitness Test

I found this video that shows examples of how each test should be performed. I really like this video because it shows modifications for students that may have difficulty performing the tasks (which is a lot of students). Using modifications in this fitness test will allow for a higher success rate.

President's Challenge vs. Fitnessgram

The President's Challenge consists of five different activities: 
- Curl-ups
- Shuttle run
- Endurance run/walk
- Pull-ups or flexed arm hang or push-ups
- Sit and reach

Fitnessgram consists of many different activities:

- PACER test
- One mule run/walk
- Walk test (age 13+)
- % body fat
- BMI
- Curl-ups
- Trunk Lift
- Pull-ups or flexed arm hang or push-ups
- Sit and reach 

The President's Challenge program provides me with a FREE software to enter my student's data. It also allows me to generate reports of their data. 

Fitnessgram software would cost $414.00 per school year in my school (based on the number of students). The price would increase if we were to do it district-wide. The software allows me to enter my student's data and track it, as well as share it with their parents/guardians. I would be able to print their record sheet or send it via e-mail.

Disaster on day #1

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am trying to decide which physical fitness testing program I want to start using at my school. I briefly shared my ideas with the other PE teacher that I co-teach with during our meetings yesterday and he was on board. It felt great to know he was on the same page as me in regards to the fitness testing. I was excited to start going over the two different programs with him today and early next week, however, after hearing him talk to the students today I am a bit concerned. He told the students right away that we would be testing them next week and listed all the tests we were going to give to them, making a lot of them very nervous. Rather than come out and burden them on the first day, I was hoping next week to ease into it after we had discussed how we were going to record their test results, where we would keep them for future records, which tests we would be using, and how to motivate what seem like "the impossible students" to give us their best effort. I do not like to rush into things. I like to plan every single detail out before I give something a shot. Before having the students run the mile, I want to help them understand the importance of pacing yourself rather than running as fast as you can for the entire time. Rather than have them run the mile on Tuesday, I would like to see them run 2 laps to have them practice their pacing and also give me a good idea of how in shape they may be or not be. There are proper techniques that need to be reviewed so that our students are performing to the best of their ability. Tomorrow I am going to sit down with him and explain my thoughts to him so that we can talk it over and come out with an actual plan, rather than just winging it.

Implementing Physical Fitness Testing Into PE Class

      Looking back on my PE classes when I was in elementary and middle school, I can clearly remember the week of fitness testing. Most of my classmates moaned in anger as we were told it was time to run the mile or be tested on how many pull-ups or sit-ups we could do....but not me! I was excited for the challenge and to see where I stood against my fellow classmates. I can remember being test from first grade almost ever year until I graduated high school. Here in the school district I teach in, there is no fitness challenge in any of the schools. My school year starts in two days and I have been toying with the idea of starting a new tradition by implementing a physical fitness testing program this year. With this new idea, many questions popped into mind: 

When would I find time to test the students?
How many times a year do I need to test my students?
How much will it cost to buy the equipment I need?
How can I keep track of the students' progress?
Will the other schools in the district be willing to add physical fitness testing to their curriculum?


I spent a lot of time this summer on websites trying to decide which one was right for my school district. I have focused most of my research on "The President's Challenge"and "Fitnessgram", which I will explain to you in my next post. As you follow my blog, I hope you can help me with ideas on how to implement one of these programs into my school. I look forward to hearing about your school and what works for your PE program.