For generations of U.S. schoolchildren, phrases like "shuttle run" and "sit-and-reach" likely conjure vivid memories of what was once a staple of American physical education: the Presidential Fitness Test. And thanks to a new executive order, it's slated to return to gymnasiums nationwide.
On Thursday, President Trump signed the order reviving the test, a set of standardized exercises that schools conducted to measure students' physical fitness for over half a century until 2013, when President Barack Obama phased it out in favor of a more holistic approach. It's not yet clear which exercises will be part of the test going forward, or when it will launch.
It was traditionally conducted once or twice a year for students ages 10 to 17, and included drills like push-ups, the back-and-forth PACER running test and the infamous one-mile run.
And it was a competitive affair: Students who placed at or above the 85th percentile on all exercises were eligible for the Presidential Fitness Award, which Trump's order is also reinstating.
"From the late 1950s until 2013, graduate scholars all across our country competed against each other in the presidential fitness test, and it was a big deal," Trump said at the signing ceremony, flanked by a slew of professional athletes. "This was a wonderful tradition, and we're bringing it back."
Trump is also reestablishing the President's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition and tasking it with developing criteria for the test. Its rollout will be administered by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Kennedy's "Make America Healthy Again" report, released in May, bemoans the decline of American kids' activity and physical fitness levels, rising rates of obesity and what he calls the "childhood chronic disease crisis."
Trump's order adds another layer of urgency, saying that Americans' physical wellbeing is in decline, and is a "threat to the vitality and longevity of our country," especially on the eve of 2026 — America's 250th birthday and the year it's set to host the FIFA World Cup.
"Rates of obesity, chronic disease, inactivity, and poor nutrition are at crisis levels, particularly among our children," the order reads. "These trends weaken our economy, military readiness, academic performance, and national morale."
Leaders made a similar argument about patriotism when the original test was introduced in the Cold War era. But the trends cited by the Trump administration have only worsened since then. So experts and educators tell NPR they are exercising caution when it comes to their hopes for a revamped version.
Joanna Faerber, a physical education teacher working with rural Louisiana schools on federal grants, says Trump's announcement drew a passionately divided response in her professional network.
"We all agree that childhood obesity and lack of physical activity and physical education in school is limited," she said. "I think measuring it is the question."
How did the test come about?
Pioneering orthopedic surgeon Hans Kraus — now recognized as the "father of sports medicine" in the U.S. — worked with another doctor, Sonja Weber, in the 1940s to create the Kraus-Weber test. They designed the test to evaluate fitness through sit-ups and other exercises focused on core strength and flexibility.
In the 1950s, Kraus and his fellow fitness enthusiast Bonnie Prudden set about administering the test to thousands of schoolchildren in the U.S., Italy, Switzerland and Austria. The researchers found that 58% of American kids failed at least one element of the six-part test, compared to just 8.7% of Europeans.
"We have no wish to change the standard of living by trying to do away with the automobile and television," Kraus said, presenting their work to a White House gathering in 1955. "But we must make sure that we make up for this loss of physical activity."
Their findings — which Sports Illustrated at the time called "The Report That Shocked the President" — spurred President Dwight Eisenhower to order the creation of the President's Council on Youth Fitness in 1956. (That's the same council that Trump reestablished in this week's order.) The following year, the council piloted its own national fitness test.
President John F. Kennedy built on Eisenhower's momentum, launching a nationwide public service campaign encouraging Americans to take the 50-mile hikes once required of U.S. Marines. Kennedy was a strong advocate of physical fitness, penning an influential Sports Illustrated essay to that effect — titled "The Soft American" — as president-elect in 1960. Trump referenced the essay in his executive order, and RFK Jr. talked about it at the signing ceremony.
"He was lamenting the fact that America had prided itself on a beef jerky toughness, and that … we were falling behind Europeans, we were falling behind other nations," Kennedy said of his uncle.
The third iteration of the council under President Lyndon B. Johnson formalized the fitness test in 1966, and added the element of an award for top performers.
From there, the test became a fixture of American P.E. classes, though its components did evolve over the decades. For example, it ditched the softball throw, which came to be seen as more of a skill (for grenade-wielding soldiers) than a measure of fitness.
"I think it was instilled to try to get people back in the '60s ready to enter into the armed forces and get them fit for battle," Laura Richardson, a clinical associate professor in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan, told NPR. "And then as time evolved, they said, 'We need to change this.'"
Why did the test go away?
Over the decades, the physical fitness test drew increasing criticism for its negative impact on mental health. Many students found it an exercise in humiliation in front of their peers, fueling concerns about body image from a young age.
Critics also doubted the test's effectiveness, saying its task-specific, one-size-fits-all nature was not conducive to making individual progress towards a healthier lifestyle. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (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.
The Obama administration phased out the fitness test after the 2012-2013 school year, replacing it with the Presidential Youth Fitness Program. The voluntary program provides resources to schools for assessing and recognizing youth fitness, shifting its emphasis from athleticism to overall health.
Many schools do that using the FitnessGram Assessment, which was developed by the Kenneth H. Cooper Institute at Texas Tech University and evaluates criteria like aerobic capacity, flexibility, body composition and muscular strength.
While specifics about Trump's revamped Presidential Fitness Test are still scarce, the educators NPR spoke with hope it will continue to prioritize that kind of health-related fitness over specific skills.
They would like to see the test include robust resources for the teachers who will be implementing and collecting data from it. And they hope that it will enable schools to spend more time allowing and encouraging kids to be active — not just to prepare for the test, but to form lifelong habits.
"A fitness assessment is just to let you know where you are," Faerber said. "It's not the end. It's the beginning of changing."
Ricardson says it will likely take years to see whether the new test is working, because of the amount of individual and population-level data required. And, she notes, fitness is just one avenue for addressing childhood obesity, along with things like nutrition, sleep and stress.
"I think the biggest thing is that right now we have child fitness at the forefront," she adds. "And that is what we need to be focusing on: How do we help kids get to where we want them to be, less about the test and more about how we get them there."
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