Trump signs EO reestablishing ‘Presidential Fitness Test’ for students

Valletta · Jul 31, 2025

The President’s Council on Youth Fitness was established in 1956 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The creation of this program was motivated by concerns over the declining physical fitness of American youth, especially when compared to children in European countries. Eisenhower’s concern was sparked by a 1953 study conducted by Dr. Hans Kraus and Dr. Sonja Weber, which found that nearly 58% of American children failed a basic fitness test, compared to only 9% of European children.

Trump signs EO reestablishing 'Presidential Fitness Test' for students

President Donald Trump signed an executive order (EO) on Thursday reestablishing the Presidential Fitness Test, which former Democrat President Barack Obama phased out in 2012.

www.oann.com

I am pleased to see the Trump administration acting to keep America healthy, from removing red dyes in food to reducing the price of prescription drugs.

comana · Aug 1, 2025

More nonsense from Trump. Notice the article doesn’t offer any statistics on the effectiveness of the fitness test in previous generations.

RocksInMyHead · Aug 1, 2025

Valletta said:
The President’s Council on Youth Fitness was established in 1956 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The creation of this program was motivated by concerns over the declining physical fitness of American youth, especially when compared to children in European countries. Eisenhower’s concern was sparked by a 1953 study conducted by Dr. Hans Kraus and Dr. Sonja Weber, which found that nearly 58% of American children failed a basic fitness test, compared to only 9% of European children.

Trump signs EO reestablishing 'Presidential Fitness Test' for students

President Donald Trump signed an executive order (EO) on Thursday reestablishing the Presidential Fitness Test, which former Democrat President Barack Obama phased out in 2012.

www.oann.com

I am pleased to see the Trump administration acting to keep America healthy, from removing red dyes in food to reducing the price of prescription drugs.

It should be noted that while the use of the Presidential Fitness Test was ended in 2013, it was replaced by a more structured program designed to give educators a better framework for promoting and evaluating fitness, the Presidential Youth Fitness Program.

Presidential Youth Fitness Program | odphp.health.gov

odphp.health.gov

FireDragon76 · Aug 7, 2025

comana said:
More nonsense from Trump. Notice the article doesn’t offer any statistics on the effectiveness of the fitness test in previous generations.

It's a relatively meaningless fitness test in terms of real world benefits at improving health... the real agenda was always about sorting and ranking cannon fodder for America's military machine.

Pull-ups and situps don't have much to do with real-world physical health. Most adults can't do a single pullup, not because it's a marker of physical fitness, but just due to muscular differences in aging adults, particularly women. Situps, likewise once the mainstay of many military-style physical training programs, are today recognized as being harmful to the back.

Instead, modern physical fitness programs focus on a balanced approach of appreciation of cardiovascular endurance, muscle strength, and flexibility... because these are actually correlated with modern scientific research to be important for overall human health. Not how many situps or pullups you can do. Cardiovascular endurance in particular has the single-greatest effect on longevity, with muscle strength being relatively minor in comparison.

iluvatar5150 · Aug 7, 2025

FireDragon76 said:
It's a relatively meaningless fitness test in terms of real world benefits at improving health... the real agenda was always about sorting and ranking cannon fodder for America's military machine.

Pull-ups and situps don't have much to do with real-world physical health. Most adults can't do a single pullup, not because it's a marker of physical fitness, but just due to muscular differences in aging adults, particularly women. Situps, likewise once the mainstay of many military-style physical training programs, are today recognized as being harmful to the back.

Instead, modern physical fitness programs focus on a balanced approach of appreciation of cardiovascular endurance, muscle strength, and flexibility... because these are actually correlated with modern scientific research to be important for overall human health. Not how many situps or pullups you can do. Cardiovascular endurance in particular has the single-greatest effect on longevity, with muscle strength being relatively minor in comparison.

On one hand, I don't disagree with you. OTOH, I find pull-ups and situps to be a pretty valuable part of my overall workout regimen. For situps, it's less about the old style "situp" (which I do on a decline bench, not on the floor) and more about a well-rounded approach to core strength. Hunching over a desk all day tends to cause certain muscles in my upper body and back to atrophy and pull-ups have been really good at combatting that.

I can't speak for women, but I'd suspect that for most middle aged men (of which I am one), the inability to do a pull up has more to do with them being overweight and them just not being used to doing the exercise than it does with real age-related muscular differences. Given my height and lankiness, I'm at a mechanical disadvantage for a lot of things and I can do them just fine. Guys with shorter, thicker builds ought to have an easier time... so long as they're not carrying an extra 40+ lb, which....

ThatRobGuy · Aug 7, 2025

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with either iteration of the fitness programs.

I suspect the reason why the current administration is reverting to the older one is because the newer one that came about in 2013 included this little detail:

The program minimizes comparisons between children and instead supports students as they pursue personal fitness goals

So I suspect it's another attempt at a "nostalgic nod" back to the time when there were "winners and losers", instead of the newer program that seemed to have a touch of the "participation medal" vibe to it and has "inclusivity" baked in.

There's two different ways to look at it... on one hand the previous one (where students were compared against their peers) could cause discouragement -- but competition can drive better performance, on the other hand, the newer one just saying "just work on personal improvement, we're not going to compare you to anyone else" may have been a little too soft to drive the necessary points home, but it would spare some kids some embarrassment.

I can see some merits to both approaches...and there's probably room for combining some of the concepts from each.

I don't think comparing against peers is necessarily a completely bad thing, as it can often be an indicator of what works and what doesn't - and gives a good indicator of what's reasonably achievable based on the percentile system, as where, you're flying partially blind if you only ever compare yourself to, well, yourself...

However, in looking at the data, it doesn't appear that either one was ultimately successful in putting the trajectory in the right direction.

(Disclosure, I used AI to generate the table from the CDC data)

Data on U.S. Youth Obesity (Ages 2–19)

Time Period	Obesity Prevalence (%)
1976–1980	~5.0 % (CDC, Wikipedia)
1988–1994	~10.0 % (CDC)
1999–2000	13.9 % (CDC, CDC Blogs)
2003–2004	17.1 % (CDC, PMC)
2013–2014	17.2 % (CDC, PMC)
2017–2018	19.3 % (CDC, CDC Blogs)
2021–2023	~21.1 % (CDC Blogs)

During the era of the old fitness initiative, the obesity rate among youths went from 5% up to 17% over a 40 year period... and over the 10 year period of 2013 to 2023, that rate continued its climb and went from 17% to 21%.

On the dietary front, I think we need to find the happy medium between
"Hey, as long as you tried your best, that's what's important"

and
Dr. Now savagery

wing2000 · Aug 7, 2025

ThatRobGuy said:
So I suspect it's another attempt at a "nostalgic nod" back to the time when there were "winners and losers", instead of the newer program that seemed to have a touch of the "participation medal" vibe to it and has "inclusivity" baked in.

Let's compare the fitness level of Trump with any of the former recent presidents. There is one clear loser.

GoldenBoy89 · Aug 7, 2025

I can get behind this if Trump could just quickly demonstrate that he can pass the presidential fitness test.

ThatRobGuy · Aug 7, 2025

wing2000 said:
Let's compare the fitness level of Trump with any of the former recent presidents. There is one clear loser.

I don't know exactly how relevant that is...

Keeping in mind, we've had previous presidents who were smokers who still advocated for policies to curb smoking.

I will say, to Trump's credit, he does appear to be trying (and succeeding) in losing some much needed weight.

Per PBS, he's down about 30lbs and dropped his BMI by 2.5.

Comparing him to recent presidents is a bit of a skewed sample compared to where presidents commonly used to be on the "health-o-meter" to be fair.

Two of the people on the top 5 list happen to be his immediate predecessors

The Top 5 Most Fit United States Presidents - Mason Recreation

Our leaders represent us, the citizens of the United States. They represent our ideals, our values, and sometimes they represent our care to fitness. Not […]

recreation.gmu.edu

Taking two guys who were outliers in that regard (Obama and Bush -- Bush being the guy who was so obsessed with exercising that he had treadmills put on air force one) and comparing him to just them isn't exactly fair.

Rewind a little further:

Bill Clinton had to get a quadruple bypass at age 58

Rewind even further than that, it wasn't uncommon for presidents to have notable heart/health issues from poor diet (the list of presidents and former presidents throughout the 1800 & 1900s who had heart attacks in their 50's and 60's isn't a short list)

public hermit · Aug 7, 2025

ThatRobGuy said:
I don't know exactly how relevant that is...

Keeping in mind, we've had previous presidents who were smokers who still advocated for policies to curb smoking.

I will say, to Trump's credit, he does appear to be trying (and succeeding) in losing some much needed weight.

Per PBS, he's down about 30lbs and dropped his BMI by 2.5.

Comparing him to recent presidents is a bit of a skewed sample compared to where presidents commonly used to be on the "health-o-meter" to be fair.

Two of the people on the top 5 list happen to be his immediate predecessors

The Top 5 Most Fit United States Presidents - Mason Recreation

Our leaders represent us, the citizens of the United States. They represent our ideals, our values, and sometimes they represent our care to fitness. Not […]

recreation.gmu.edu

Taking two guys who were outliers in that regard (Obama and Bush -- Bush being the guy who was so obsessed with exercising that he had treadmills put on air force one) and comparing him to just them isn't exactly fair.

Rewind a little further:

Bill Clinton had to get a quadruple bypass at age 58

Rewind even further than that, it wasn't uncommon for presidents to have notable heart/health issues from poor diet (the list of presidents and former presidents throughout the 1800 & 1900s who had heart attacks in their 50's and 60's isn't a short list)

Just being president would seem to be an unhealthy choice. Maybe it's just me, but they all seem to age exponentially in office, which is understandable.

Ophiolite · Aug 7, 2025

public hermit said:
Just being president would seem to be an unhealthy choice. Maybe it's just me, but they all seem to age exponentially in office, which is understandable.

I find just watching the shennanigans of the current president is rapidly aging me!

ThatRobGuy · Aug 7, 2025

public hermit said:
Just being president would seem to be an unhealthy choice. Maybe it's just me, but they all seem to age exponentially in office, which is understandable.

Ironically, that's one area where Trump seems to be somewhat "more immune to the aging effects of being president".

Perhaps it's because he was already a older when he got elected, so the aging difference isn't as much of a stark contrast.

It just doesn't seem as pronounced.

JFK is another one who didn't appear to age a ton (at least visually), although he only made it about 3 years into his term.

Belk · Aug 7, 2025

ThatRobGuy said:
Ironically, that's one area where Trump seems to be somewhat "more immune to the aging effects of being president".

Perhaps it's because he was already a older when he got elected, so the aging difference isn't as much of a stark contrast.

View attachment 368190
View attachment 368191

View attachment 368192

It just doesn't seem as pronounced.

JFK is another one who didn't appear to age a ton (at least visually), although he only made it about 3 years into his term.

I think it is because the job, for normal people, is highly stressful. Trump lacks the necessary traits to find the weight of the decisions he makes impactful.

wing2000 · Aug 7, 2025

ThatRobGuy said:
I don't know exactly how relevant that is...

....it was a joke.

wing2000 · Aug 7, 2025

ThatRobGuy said:
Ironically, that's one area where Trump seems to be somewhat "more immune to the aging effects of being president".

Perhaps it's because he was already a older when he got elected, so the aging difference isn't as much of a stark contrast.

View attachment 368190
View attachment 368191

View attachment 368192

It just doesn't seem as pronounced.

JFK is another one who didn't appear to age a ton (at least visually), although he only made it about 3 years into his term.

Remove the make-up. [afaik, Bush and Obama didn't apply orange facial cream]

public hermit · Aug 7, 2025

ThatRobGuy said:
Ironically, that's one area where Trump seems to be somewhat "more immune to the aging effects of being president".

Perhaps it's because he was already a older when he got elected, so the aging difference isn't as much of a stark contrast.

View attachment 368190
View attachment 368191

View attachment 368192

It just doesn't seem as pronounced.

JFK is another one who didn't appear to age a ton (at least visually), although he only made it about 3 years into his term.

I don't know. The others seem to be going natural. Is it really a fair comparison with Trump's orange makeup and colored hair?

public hermit · Aug 7, 2025

wing2000 said:
Remove the make-up. [afaik, Bush and Obama didn't apply orange facial cream]

You beat me to it.

wing2000 · Aug 7, 2025

...as for kid's fitness.

There isn't much a POTUS can do. If parents let johnny spend 4 hours daily in front of screens or buy him e-powered bikes....there's not a lot a PT test at school will do to counter that behavior.

ThatRobGuy · Aug 7, 2025

public hermit said:
I don't know. The others seem to be going natural. Is it really a fair comparison with Trump's orange makeup and colored hair?

He had that recent golf trip where everyone was making a deal about him without the makeup on...he looked pretty much the same (just less orange)

I'm more inclined to go with what Belk mentioned, which was that the types of decisions that would weigh heavily on a normal person, don't necessarily have the same impact on people who have more narcissistic tendencies.

I suspect with how cosmetic procedures are no longer as "taboo" as they once were (especially for men), we'll likely see more presidents in the future not showing the impacts of aging quite as much.

I think even Joe got a little work done in the hairline department

Although, he should've kept the mullet alive

public hermit · Aug 7, 2025

ThatRobGuy said:
I'm more inclined to go with what Belk mentioned, which was that the types of decisions that would weigh heavily on a normal person, don't necessarily have the same impact on people who have more narcissistic tendencies.

Yeah, I hadn't considered that, but it does make sense.

Trump signs EO reestablishing ‘Presidential Fitness Test’ for students

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