I always liked the concept of the Presidential Physical Fitness Test. I liked the fact that once a year the whole school population was dragged out to see how fit or unfit they were compared to their peers. I think this idea would be far more effective as an adult. Currently I’m out of shape compared to where I probably could be, but I have no benchmark of where I should be compared to my age group. I think benchmarks are important because it draws that line in the sand of how far you should let yourself go.
The presidential physical fitness benchmarks stop after school age. After that there wasn’t any data to find out what percentile you should be in. However I just recently discovered this benchmark in the Washington Post. Shazam, just what I’ve been looking for. I’ll post up my results soon. Feel free to put up your stats as well.