It has been 50 years since the inception of the
President’s Physical Fitness Award. This program has been recognizing
excellence in fitness for over 40 years, and the Presidential Physical
Fitness Award has been given to youths for their achievements and
success in fitness.
This program is now extended to all ages, and the
IFPA encourages all of our IFPA Certified Trainers to provide this as a
goal for your clients. One of the obstacles a trainer can face with
their client is staleness; this program provides an opportunity to ramp
it up and get them excited! The IFPA wants to hear of your successes
and the successes of your clients, so please keep us informed and we
will highlight this on the IFPA website. Your clients' success provides
a sense of accomplishment and pride of achievement for themselves, a
sense of accomplishment and pride for you - the trainer - in changing
someone’s life, and great sense of pride for the IFPA, in knowing we all
make positive impacts on people’s lives.
First, you will need consistency from your client,
choose the best cardiofitness activity for your client – do you know
what it is? It is the activity they enjoy doing the most and will be
consistent in doing it.
Second, to meet the required goal for this award,
your client’s daily activity should be 30 minutes per day for adults and
60 minutes per day for youths. This should be done 5 days per week for
at least 6 weeks and up to 8 weeks.
Third, the activity must be tracked. Not only should
you track your client’s success, they must keep track and log it into
the challenge program.
www.presidentschallenge.org
Finally, recognition for completion. Not only will
your clients receive this award, but they will have a better quality of
life; wouldn’t it be worth it? Remember we only have one life, so
maximize and help your clients live it to the fullest.
There are several different awards for our youths;
the one listed below is the youth fitness test performed in schools. I
remember doing those pull ups and push ups … “If I could only pull
myself up one more time to beat you know who!” Remember?!?
Keep our youths in mind while selecting your clients;
everyone needs fitness, and you can help!!
The Youth Physical Fitness Challenge consists of
four exercises:
1A. The Curl-Up – The objective is to measure
abdominal strength and endurance by the total number of
curl-ups/crunches in one minute.
1B. Partial Curl – The objective is to measure
abdominal strength and endurance by the maximum number of curl-ups.
2. Shuttle Run – The objective is
to measure speed and agility.
3A. Pull-Ups – The objective is to measure upper
body strength by maximum number of completed pull-ups.
3B. Right Angle Push-Ups – The objective is to
measure upper body strength and endurance by maximum number of push-ups.
4. Endurance Run/Walk – The
objective is to measure heart/lung endurance by fastest time to cover a
one-mile distance.
The website
www.presidentschallenge.org will give you all information needed to
help you achieve the goals with your clients.
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