The Level of American Fitness
Although awareness of the importance of physical fitness has increased in the United States, the average level of an American's fitness has decreased. In short, most everyday citizens are out of shape. This is partially due to the more modern and easier lives that most Americans lead compared to Americans of earlier time periods. If Americans wish to stay in good health, then their daily regiments must be changed. Among adolescents and teenagers, the same numbers are noticeable. Nearly fifty percent of American youth aged twelve through twenty-one are not vigorously active on a regular basis. Only nineteen percent of all high school students are physically active for more than twenty minutes or more, five days a week, mainly in physical education class (Physical Activity and Health: Adolescents and Teenagers, par. 5-8). These numbers are a significant drop from previous studies of earlier decades. When physical fitness reform was stressed in schools during the fifties, the government administered several test to get an exact figure on American children's level of fitness. The United States office of Education discovered that in one year fifty-six of 108,000 public schools had strengthened their physica
Although modern, well-designed school-based interventions directed at increasing physical activity in physical education classes have been shown to be effective, only twenty five percent of high school students enroll in physical education class daily. In 1991, forty-one percent of all high school students enrolled in physical activity. That means that in only ten years, the daily level of physical activity amongst teens has been cut almost in half (Physical Activity and Health: Adolescents and Teens, par. 9-10). Not even the best school based interventions directed at increasing physical activity can actually improve a student's level of fitness if they aren't participathing in class to begin with. One of the first specified fields of medicine in the fitness world was sports medicine. Physicians associated with professional sports teams initially practiced sports medicine, but with interest in amateur sports and physical fitness programs in the 1970's and 1980's the field grew rapidly. Sports medicine still continues to be a fast-growing division of specified medicine that has to revolutionize the understanding of exercise and the body's reaction to the stress of exercise (Sports Medicine, par.1)
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Approximate Word count = 916
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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