Will the return of the Presidential Fitness Test improve kids' physical activity levels?
Trump signed an executive order last year reinstating the test.
The Trump administration launched the return of the Presidential Physical Fitness Test this week with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. participating in fitness activities with a youth organization.
It comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order last year reestablishing the President's Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition.
"We must address the threat to the vitality and longevity of our country that is posed by America's declining health and physical fitness," the executive order reads.
Some kinesiology experts told ABC News they support the administration's efforts to promote fitness. They question, however, whether a fitness test alone will be enough to move the needle on physical activity and exercise.
"I'm a big believer that anything that raises the discussion on children moving and being active and being fit is a good thing," Jackie Goodway, a professor in the department of kinesiology at Michigan State University, told ABC News. "I think President Trump releasing this focus is a really good thing ... but I think, for me personally, the critique of [the test] outweighs the benefits of it."
Benefits of physical activity
The origins of the Presidential Physical Fitness Test date back to 1958 when the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education and Recreation (AAHPER) established the Youth Fitness Project, which introduced the first standardized national fitness test in the U.S.
The original test consisted of pull-ups for boys and modified pull-ups for girls, sit-ups, a shuttle run, standing long jump, 50-yard dash and softball throw for distance, with a 600-yard walk-run being added later.
In 1966, then-President Lyndon B. Johnson established the Presidential Physical Fitness Award Program for youth who scored above the 85th percentile on all seven test items of the AAHPER Youth Fitness Test.
The test underwent several modifications before it was retired in 2012 under the Obama administration with the President's Council launching the Presidential Youth Fitness Program, described as a comprehensive school-based program that promotes health and regular physical activity among American youth.
The Presidential Physical Fitness Test is just one of many physical fitness tests that students may take in school.
The kinesiology experts told ABC News that movement and physical activity are critical for children. Children who are more active have a healthier weight and may have a lower risk of developing conditions including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease or some cancers, research has shown.
Additionally, children who are more physically activity tend to be at lower risk for depression and anxiety symptoms.
Studies and meta-analyses have also shown that kids who are more active have better academic outcomes.
"A brain is built through movement and so one of the things we know is that children who have less opportunities to move as infants don't develop the executive function, the cognitive development in the same ways that other children do who are more active," Goodway said.
Issues with the test
The Presidential Physical Fitness Test has previously yielded negative results among some students, according to Goodway. When she has asked adults about their memories of the test, some loved it but others hated it, she said.
For students who were less athletic, there's some public humiliation involved with the test, Goodway noted.
"When you think about a math test and English test, it's private failure. If you don't do very well on a test, the teacher knows and you know, but the rest of your classmates don't know," Goodway said. "But if you come in last in the mile run and everybody's laughing at you, it's public humiliation."
Other health-related physical fitness tests discuss getting an individual into a healthy fitness zone, but the Presidential Physical Fitness Test has individuals competing against their peers, Goodway said.
She said kids would be more incentivized to engage in regular physical activity if they were beating their own records rather than competing against other kids.
"Ideally what you would want to see is kids competing against themselves," she said. "The next time I do this, can I get a little faster in my mile run? Can I jump a little further?"
Chad Killian, an assistant professor of kinesiology at the University of New Hampshire, said students are not getting enough time on physical education (PE) in schools every week.
Killian is part of a group surveying PE teachers about the amount of physical activity opportunities available in their schools.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine recommend 150 minutes of PE per week in elementary school and 225 minutes of PE per week for middle school and high school.
The group found that many kids are getting much less than the recommended time, according to Killian.
"When I was a PE teacher in elementary school it was once a week for 30 minutes," he told ABC News. "So that's 36 times in a school year ... how can we expect kids to learn when they don't have time to learn right?"
Killian went on, "If you're not going to give kids that time to learn and develop fitness, you shouldn't be assessing fitness. It's just inappropriate."
He and Goodway said the success of the Presidential Physical Fitness Test depends on how it is implemented and should involve components such as practicing throughout the year or having teacher involvement.
"When I did it as a teacher, we did it together," he said. "We'll do it together and encourage each other ... there are good and bad ways to do fitness testing."
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