CAN'T TOUCH YOUR TOES? -The New(Old) Presidential Fitness Test and How Fitness Will Save America

On July 31, 2025, former President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order to reinstate the Presidential Fitness Test in U.S. public schools and reestablish the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition. The test, a hallmark of American physical education from the late 1950s until its phase‑out in 2013, will now relaunch under the oversight of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.), as part of the administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) initiative.

Traditionally administered once or twice per year to students aged roughly 10–17, the test included components like the one‑mile run, push‑ups, pull‑ups or sit‑ups, shuttle (pacer) run, and sit‑and‑reach. Top performers (typically those at or above the 85th percentile on all events) could earn the Presidential Fitness Award—a competitive incentive that many Americans today recall with both pride and anxiety.

The Historical Context: Cold War Fitness and the Rise  and Fall of a Classic American Tradition

The origins trace to the Kraus–Weber test, developed in the early 1950s, which exposed that over half of American schoolchildren failed basic strength and flexibility tests; this was a metric far worse than European peers where only 8% failed. These findings sparked concern about sedentary lifestyles in postwar America. President Dwight Eisenhower responded by founding the President’s Council on Youth Fitness in 1956. President John F. Kennedy expanded that momentum and emphasized physical and mental vigor  in his 1960 Sports Illustrated essay “The Soft American”. 

Why Did Kennedy Care So Much About Fitness?

Outside of a battle for nuclear arsenals, the Cold War was a fight between two distinct models of life. Capitalism vs. communism. Authoritarianism vs. Freedom. A strong vs. a weak country. The American way of life had to look stronger and be stronger.

Kennedy looked at a rising generation of Americans and saw a population growing comfortable, even complacent following America’s invigorating WW2 victory, putting the U.S. at the top of the pecking order. Where the Soviets were fielding gymnasts, chess prodigies, and Olympic champions, America was becoming a more sedentary state, breaking farther from the physical demands that had once shaped its Westward expansion and ‘Manifest Destiny’ spirit.

In his Sports Illustrated article, Kennedy drew on classical ideals from the ancient Greeks. They revered the balance of mind and body, cultivating the intellect and physique in tandem. The citizen-athlete, to the Greeks, was a blueprint for democratic health.

“Hardy spirits and tough minds usually inhabit sound bodies,” he wrote in 1960, months before taking office.

Physical fitness was a civic responsibility. A soft citizenry would lead to a brittle democracy. If Americans couldn’t meet the demands of everyday life with strength and resilience, how could they face the pressures of a global struggle between the Soviet Union?

So he put fitness on the national agenda. He launched the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and wrote essays imploring schools, parents, and young people to move, train, and push themselves. 

Over decades, the test evolved but remained fundamentally standardized: a one‑size‑fits‑all athletic challenge. By the early 21st century, criticism mounted over its competitiveness, emotional stress, and failure to promote holistic health. In 2012–13, the Obama administration replaced it with the Presidential Youth Fitness Program, including the FitnessGram Assessment, which shifted the focus toward health‑related metrics like aerobic capacity and body composition. 

Why the Revival: Trump, RFK Jr., and the “Childhood Chronic Disease Crisis”

Trump’s executive order frames the test’s return as critical to addressing what it calls a “crisis”—with rising rates of childhood obesity, inactivity, poor nutrition, and chronic disease undermining military readiness, academic performance, national morale, and economic health. 

Health Secretary RFK Jr. 's MAHA report, released in May 2025, spotlights key contributors to the crisis: widespread ultra‑processed food consumption, over‑prescription of medications, increasingly digital lifestyles, environmental chemical exposure, and of course vaccines causing autism. The report paints a bleak portrait of American youth health trends, highlighting that more than 70% of children 6–17 fall short of federal recommendations for daily activity.

Still, the MAHA report has generated controversy. Journalistic watchdogs revealed that several cited studies do not exist, while many other sources were misinterpreted or flawed, prompting the White House to commit to revisions  

In addition to reinstating the Fitness Test, Trump revived the Council, now including up to 30 figures from the sports world. Big names include Nick Bosa, Wayne Gretzky, Roger Goodell, Mariano Rivera, Lawrence Taylor, and the council chair Bryson Dechambeau. The council is tasked with drafting new fitness criteria and revitalizing youth fitness engagement

Potential Advantages: 

1. Quantifiable Fitness Benchmarks

Restoring standardized tests may offer schools and families objective data on student strength, endurance, and flexibility—something missing from more flexible wellness curricula.

2. Incentive via Competition

The Presidential Fitness Award can motivate students to pursue excellence in their physical education classes. This creates healthy competition between students to push themselves through these physical tests. 

3. National Messaging and Norm‑setting

By reestablishing this national council and setting some lofty goals, the administration hopes to refocus public attention on fitness as a civic value, tying it to patriotism, military readiness, and national identity.

4. Success Outside the Classroom can Translate to Inside

There’s strong evidence that increased physical fitness can lead to improved mental performance. The connection between physical activity and brain function is one of the key reasons why people like JFK pushed for national fitness initiatives in the first place.

The Disadvantages and Risks

1. Re‑Traumatizing Competitive Pressure

Many educators and former students remember the test as humiliating for those who didn’t measure up, fostering shame, negative body image, and disengagement from exercise. Critics fear returning to this iteration may repeat these harms unless redesigned with more sensitivity. 

2. Over‑Emphasis on Performance Metrics

FitnessGram and other holistic assessments capture health more comprehensively than timed runs or sit‑ups. The revived test may ignore individual differences in genetics, accessibility, and baseline health, risking unfair labeling of some students.

4.  Symbolism without True Investment

Similar to earlier administrations, critics warn the test could be largely symbolic. Without adequate federal funding for training, P.E. staffing, equipment, or nutrition support –something JFK-era council lacked– it’s difficult to imagine the program will have much success. 

What It Might Mean for Future American Health

Evidence shows that multifaceted interventions are most important to optimize young Americans’ health: improving school nutrition, promoting active school-day design, limiting screen time, and investments in public recreation infrastructure. Just renewing the program without any change will not move the needle on our obesity and mental health crises. It’s worth noting that CDC data shows that the adult obesity rate rose from about 13% in 1960 to about 34% in 2008, during the rough window the test was in effect

To be effective, the initiative must:

• Support schools with resources and training to integrate physical activity daily test dates.

• Synchronize with other elements of MAHA, including dietary reform, environmental safety, and limitations on ultra-processed foods.

  
  

Final Thoughts: Tradition vs. Transformation

Like Kennedy’s vision in the 1960s, the revival of the Presidential Fitness Test speaks to a deeper anxiety about contemporary American decline. 

The threats today are different from what Americans faced in the Cold War.

Today, Americans face chronic disease, loneliness, screen addiction, and systemic underfunding of public health. Counting sit-ups alone won’t solve these problems. A mile run can’t undo a broken food system. And a patch on a gym shirt won’t replace the necessary policy work to fight for equitable food access, and mental health support.

Still, the reintroduction of the test offers an opportunity to spark a solution.

So yes, bring back the shuttle runs. But this time, we have to make sure the track leads somewhere.