The FBI has now made a policy where their members have to pass a physical fitness test in order to be apart of the prestigious organization. They have to do four different tests, and they include Sit-Ups, Push-Ups, 300 Meter run, and a 1.5 Mile run. They even have training sessions to ensure that they pass these tests. Blaine High School also performs these types of tests, but they only count for a grade not a job.

Most of the time you can hear teachers say “Tomorrow we will be doing the pacer/push-up/curl-up/sit and reach post test.” These words are heard once a trimester in your gym class.  But does anybody else ever wonder how hard it is to come up with the numbers for these fitness tests?

We went down to the fieldhouse to ask some of the gym teachers how they got these numbers and how they feel about these numbers. Joshua Prokosch said, “We get all the standards from the Presidential Fitness Testing and all the amounts and numbers that people need to get to get a grade come straight from them.”

Now, what are some of the things we must do for fitness tests you might ask. Two of the tests that are apart of the fitness tests are in the muscular endurance category. Muscular endurance is the ability of a muscle group to execute repeated contractions over a period of time to fatigue. In this category is the curl-up(sit-up) test and the push-up test.

One of the tests is under the category of flexibility, which means the absolute range of movement in a joint. This test is the sit and reach, and the last test is under cardiovascular endurance. This test is the pacer test. These tests have been quoted as “not fun” or “they suck.” But is it “not fun” or do “they suck” for the teachers as well.

We then asked him why is there such a drastic difference in the boys scores compared to the girls scores? We also asked him why don’t they put body weight or strength into the standards we have to meet? He responded with “Girls typically develop earlier than boys, and boys typically tend to be stronger than girls. So the testing, that comes straight from the presidential Fitness Testing,  is arranged for the genders to be fair for both girls and boys.”

We also wanted to know what the students perspective was about the fitness tests so we took to the halls of Blaine High School to find the answers. We found Ava Zoschke where we asked her what her thoughts were on the fitness tests at blaine high school, and whether or not they thought that the standards are fair for both genders. She stated that “They are kind of biased because not everyone is going to be athletic or good at push ups or sit ups.” And she thinks that, “Girls are stereotyped as “weak” or that men are supposed to be “stronger” and that is not true for everybody.”

After truly finding out the real “struggle” of making the fitness tests, and finding out how people with different viewpoints think about the fitness testing, do you believe that the fitness tests are fair for the school and the students who have to take them? We had a fun time exploring the inner world of physical education and the fitness level of the students at Blaine High School.