Better Shape Up (cont.) | Outside Online

Outside Magazine August 2001

Page:

Better Shape Up (cont.)

IT WASN'T JUST ONE thing. Like the genesis of a natural disaster—or a heart attack—our national dilemma is a culmination of multiple, gradual, thoroughly quotidian trends.

* Television.
The average American adult watches four hours of TV each day, or two full months a year. Our children now spend more time watching TV (1,023 hours annually) than in school (900 hours). It comes as no surprise that, as the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) recently reported, "Boys and girls who watch four hours or more of television each day have greater body fat and a greater body mass index."

* The automobile.
The average American spends 73 minutes a day in traffic. Nearly a fourth of our daily trips are shorter than a mile, and yet more than three-fourths of those short trips are made by automobile. More than 42 million Americans own bicycles, and yet less than 1 percent of all trips are made by bicycle—even though, in many communities, it is now faster to ride than to drive. And guess how far the average American walks every day. Unbelievably, 400 yards—less than a quarter of a mile.

* Food.
In 1999, JAMA reported that over the previous 15 years American men increased their average daily food consumption from 2,239 calories to 2,455. For women, the increase went from 1,534 calories to 1,646. Add it up. For men, 216 extra calories per day for 365 days yields 78,840 extra calories per year, the equivalent of 22.5 pounds of fat. Order the Biggie size, and soon enough you are what you eat.

* The computer.
"Adults and kids today play simulated games," says Flannery of P.E.4LIFE. "Computer poker, solitaire, Game Boy, Nintendo&3151;not real games. Few of them are out there riding bikes, shooting hoops, just recreating in the outdoors. Solitary computer games involve no human contact, no physical interaction, no exercise, and provide no opportunity for developing self-esteem and responsibility." The same goes, by and large, for the Internet.

* The built environment.
From Philadelphia to Phoenix, new suburbs have no sidewalks, no bike lanes, no neighborhood grocery stores, let alone a nearby selection of shops. Sprawl and congestion make walking and biking unpleasant at best, dangerous at worst.

"The best analogy I can think of is veal," says the CDC's Killingsworth. "We're raising our children the same way we raise calves for veal. Keep them in boxes, feed them too much, allow them no exercise. The lifestyle of most American families is so unhealthy, so toxic, that we may be witnessing the first generation of kids ever whose life expectancy is less than that of their parents."

THERE ARE SMALL signs that the nation is waking up from its couch coma.

In January, Congress passed the Physical Education for Progress Act, legislation designed to reinvigorate school-based PE. "This is a tremendous first step in getting our children active again," says Flannery. "Our leaders are finally recognizing that PE is as fundamental as academics." P.E.4LIFE has set a goal of reinstituting daily PE in grades K-8 in three-quarters of the nation's schools by 2005.

In March, Surgeon General David Satcher announced a yearlong effort to develop an action plan for reducing the prevalence of overweight and obese Americans. The National Association for Sport and Physical Education has created a new program called Sport for All that will focus on developing ball skills, fair play, and teamwork. "Many, if not most, of the skills used in adult physical activities are learned during the school years," says NASPE executive director Judy Young.

In April, the American Hiking Society and the TV-Turnoff Network cosponsored their annual National TV-Turnoff Week. On October 2, the Partnership for a Walkable America is sponsoring its second annual International Walk to School Day.

Every step makes a difference. It would behoove the outdoor industry—if only to ensure that there are still people fit enough to be interested in buying boots or bikes or snowboards ten years from now—to find its own way to promote physical education across America.

But in the end, to halt our devolution into an unfit, unhealthy nation, we must fundamentally change the way most of us live our lives. This starts with wholly redefining the quality-of-life equation. It's not about what's on TV—it's about asking why the TV is on and shutting it off. It's not just about driving fuel-efficient cars—it's about bicycling or walking instead of driving. It's not even really about eating right—it's about eating the right amount. It's not about belonging to a gym—it's about exercising often, wherever, however. It's about making sure you're still fit enough to light out for the territory.

Remember the original criteria used to develop the President's Challenge tests—familiarity, no special equipment, self-testing. You can do sit-ups in your pajamas with your ankles hooked under the bed. You can do push-ups in your work clothes; you can run a mile in almost any pair of comfortable shoes in your closet. If most of us are spending four hours a day in front of the idiot box, physical fitness is not about opportunity or time—it's about what our old sadistic gym teacher had right, even if his approach was wrong: self-discipline.

WHICH IS EXACTLY what the President's Challenge is all about. Self-discipline is also at the very heart of adventure—climbing, skiing, kayaking, name your passion—and it's why I couldn't in good conscience write this finger-wagging column without taking the test myself.

To win the Presidential Physical Fitness Award, a 17-year-old male—in the Challenge's oldest age group—must do at least 55 curl-ups (bent-knee sit-ups with arms crossed over the chest) in one minute; finish the shuttle run (sprinting to shuttle an eraser four times back and forth over a ten-yard course) in 8.7 seconds or less; make a V-reach (sitting on the ground with your legs straight out and reaching your fingers as far as possible past your feet) of seven inches; run a mile in 6:06 or less; and do 13 pull-ups or 53 push-ups.

I told perhaps ten men, ages 25 to 50, all outdoor athletes, that I was going to take this battery of tests, and without exception, they all scoffed. "Doesn't sound so tough," one said. "I'm sure I could pass." By God, bravado really is the meat and potatoes of American maleness. In fact, the President's Challenge is more difficult than the physical fitness tests required of recruits in our elite military commandos&3151;the Army Rangers and Navy SEALs.

Go ahead, test yourself. Send me your results. My scores: 65 curl-ups in a minute, 8.6 seconds for the shuttle run, V-reach of 7.5 inches, a 6:03 mile, 35 pull-ups, 65 push-ups. I had my daughter Teal do the counting. She thought it was fun.

A week later, with the kind of insouciant naturalness that only a six-year-old girl can have, she came home from school with her Presidential Physical Fitness Award certificate and the coveted patch, left them on the kitchen table without fanfare, and ran outside to play.

Page: