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By Chuck Corbin, professor emeritus of the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University
For decades, news accounts of the fitness of young people in the United States have headlined the high percentage who “fail” fitness tests. “Failing” has sometimes meant not meeting an arbitrary standard on one fitness test or, more commonly, not meeting standards on multiple tests. The experts who developed health-based fitness standards rejected the use of the terms pass and fail when reporting fitness scores. Instead, based on the evidence, they adopted the strategy that “something is better than nothing.”
As fitness increases (see the horizontal axis in the following figure), the presence of health risk markers (e.g., higher-than-normal blood pressure, blood lipids, and body fat levels) decrease. As illustrated in the figure, low fitness (A) is associated with a high presence of health risks, even in young people. Health marker profiles are much better as fitness improves (B and C).
The lower level of healthy fitness zones are set at the point (often called a cut point) where increases in fitness no longer produce large reductions in risk (blue arrow). Students often think they are “failing” if they don’t meet the healthy fitness standard (blue arrow). It is important for us to help students correctly interpret fitness results to avoid feelings of failure.
The Fitness Continuum
Fitness exists on a continuum. Cut points can be useful in determining fitness zones, but a continuum is more useful for educational purposes. Young people who score below the cut point for healthy fitness are not failing—they simply have a higher risk than those who score at or above the cut point. A student with low fitness has relatively high risk but, with modest effort, can improve their fitness—that is, move from A to B on the continuum—which is accompanied by substantial reductions in health risk. With each movement on the continuum (A to B to C), risk decreases. Students categorized as A, B, and C are not failing, but they can benefit from improvement.
Additional movement on the continuum (e.g., movement from C to D) provides further health benefits, but the amount of benefit for the gain in fitness is proportionally lower than moving from A to B and from B to C. Improving fitness to a high level (D), however, is typically necessary for performance in sports and some occupations. However, the amount of time devoted to the physical activity necessary to reach high-performance zones may be more than many people are willing to give, especially since the added health benefits are not as significant as those provided by moving from low fitness zones to healthy fitness zones.
Young people don’t “pass” or “fail” fitness tests; they just have different levels of fitness and of health risk. Helping students understand this and helping each student move along the fitness continuum are important goals. So is helping students understand that something is better than nothing!
Content adapted from Youth Fitness in America. Copyright C. B. Corbin
Charles B. (“Chuck”) Corbin, PhD, is a professor emeritus of the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University. He is internationally recognized as an expert in physical activity, health, and wellness promotion and in youth physical fitness. Dr. Corbin has authored or coauthored more than 100 books, including Fitness for Life, Corbin’s Fitness for Life Middle School, Fitness for Life Elementary School, and Concepts of Fitness and Wellness, all of which have earned excellence awards from the Text and Academic Authors Association. He has also published more than 200 journal articles on fitness, health, wellness, and physical activity. Learn more about his most recent text, Corbin's Fitness for Life Middle School, Third Edition.