LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The presidential fitness test is coming back. You remember that, right? School age children being evaluated on pushups, situps, running, rope climbs and other exercises for more than 50 years. I found it traumatic, but I digress. Then the Obama administration revamped it. And President Trump hasn't yet announced what his new evaluation will look like or when it will be implemented. But we thought we'd ask about the prospects. Dr. Jordan Metzl is a sports medicine physician at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York and joins me now. Good morning.
JORDAN METZL: Good morning to you.
FADEL: So is there merit to bringing back a presidential fitness test?
METZL: I think that's a great question. And it's unclear. The presidential physical fitness test was started by President Kennedy back in the 1960s. And the idea was that American kids were watching too much television, and they were sitting around getting unfit. And so the idea was to implement a strategy to evaluate their fitness and encourage fitness in them. And you and I and many of us went through presidential physical fitness testing...
FADEL: (Laughter).
METZL: ...As a way of evaluating where we were.
FADEL: Did you also sit at the bottom of the rope? Because I couldn't climb it (laughter).
METZL: That was the process. Exactly.
FADEL: Is a presidential fitness test, though, a good way to close that gap that you described with kids watching more TV and all this?
METZL: Yeah, well, in today's age, we're dealing with smartphones and inactivity in kids. And I think it's unclear whether having a metric to evaluate them will make them more active. But certainly, that was the thought back in the '60s as well.
FADEL: How much of a concern about inactive kids is really new?
METZL: I think the concern is the same, but it's getting worse. In the United States, we have 80% of our kids under the age of 18, according to the CDC, are not meeting recommended physical fitness activity guidelines. And we have more than 20% of our population under the age of 18 that are obese. And so we're looking for ways to encourage kids to get fit and active, and whether it's a test or whatever it is, we definitely need to think about encouraging kids because athletic and active kids become athletic teens who become athletic adults, who have a whole host of health benefits from activity and a whole host of health risks from inactivity. So this is a really important paradigm to.
FADEL: But is this the answer, an evaluation where you put kids under a microscope? I just remember feeling like, oh, man, I got to try to pretend to do pushups again.
METZL: (Laughter) I don't think we know the answer to that question. I think that there's no exact answer. I think it's, you know, we need to start encouraging activity in our young people, whether it's a test or whatever it is, we need to start thinking about ways to do that. And I think that's the focus.
FADEL: OK, so we don't really know what this revived fitness test would look like. But what would it take to be successful? I mean, what would you want to see in it?
METZL: I think the key thing, you know, if you remember from the old days when we did this as well, that this needs to be something that's reproducible in high-income, low-income, medium-income schools because schools have different means around the country. And so one thing there needs to be is it has to be essentially low-tech or no tech.
And again, like getting your blood pressure taken or whatever when you go to a doctor, it's not the value at the day that makes a difference, though it does, but it's really where you are compared to last year and the year before when you go for your annual checkup. And so the idea here is, are we giving something that's reproducible year after year? And are we giving people something to shoot for? So I don't think the concept is a terrible concept. I just think it has to be implemented correctly.
FADEL: And really quickly, I mean, is there anything - I mean, this went on for 50 years. Is there anything from decades of data on this old test that you can learn from?
METZL: I think that we need to encourage people to be active. I don't think we have any specific data. This is, in fact, the point. But getting people active is the key message.
FADEL: Dr. Jordan Metzl is a sports medicine physician at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. He's also the author of the book "The Exercise Cure." Thank you for your time.
METZL: Thanks so much.
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