The Army and My First Pull-Up (Attempt)
A Bar, a Boy, and a Presidential Council on Youth Fitness
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I still remember the day the bar broke me. It was Presidential Fitness Test time at my elementary school. I made it through the runs (shuttle and long-distance), sit-and-reach, and curl-ups (sit-ups) okay, but then came the bar. Although the standards allowed for a push-up alternative, at my school we did pull-ups. Or, at least some kids did.
A few kids crushed the pull-up, easily clearing 10 reps. Some did okay, getting their chin above the bar a handful of times. But most performed more or less like me. I jumped up and pulled with all my might, eyes closed for effort (and to avoid seeing my peers watching me); my little biceps flexing, I moved my head a few inches towards the bar before dropping, muscles spent. My second try proved no more successful than the first. A bit humiliated, I shuffled out of line.
Though mortifying in the moment, the day’s events passed quickly. There was a ceremony for kids who qualified for the Presidential Physical Fitness Award, but the test had little staying power. As was likely the case for the millions of elementary school students who took the test as kids, I had no idea that the test had some higher-order purpose nor that the test emerged from a process where the Army played a role.
But the story of the Presidential Physical Fitness Test, now known as the Presidential Youth Fitness Challenge, is worth recalling. There are elements bound to a specific point in time, one where Americans trusted their institutions and followed their lead in adopting new fitness regimes; but there are also timeless elements that speak to the Army’s relationship to the physical health of the nation. Both pieces tell us something about our nation, our Army, and ourselves.
Pull-ups and fireworks. Source: DVIDS.
Before Sputnik, there was Kraus-Prudden
Few moments are carved as deeply into Americans’ collective memory as Sputnik.1 The Soviet’s successful satellite launch in 1957 caused many of America’s leaders to fear we were losing the space and missile race. In response, we passed major legislation augmenting our space and technical education programs. Sputnik continues to serve as a codeword for any ominous development where America risks losing ground, most often in national security, to an adversary. But before Sputnik, there was Kraus-Prudden.
Though mostly lost to history, Kraus-Prudden refers to a fitness test conducted by Dr. Hans Kraus and Bonnie Prudden with American and European schoolchildren. 57.9 percent of the American children failed the test, compared to only 8.7% of the European children. These results were published in 1954 and captured President Dwight Eisenhower’s attention. Sports Illustrated ran an article on the findings called “The Report that Shocked the President.”
At a White House event in July 1955, Dr. Kraus and Bonnie Prudden briefed President Eisenhower, Vice-President Nixon, and a group of senior government leaders. In response to the stark findings, President Eisenhower, who once said, “Only strength can cooperate. Weakness can only beg”, organized the President's Conference on the Fitness of American Youth at Annapolis in 1956. Coming out of this conference, President Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10673, “Fitness of American Youth”, which created the President’s Council on Youth Fitness and a civilian advisory board.2
The Army makes two notable appearances at this point. The second Conference on the Fitness of American Youth was held at the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1957. This conference created the action plan for a 1958 nationwide physical fitness survey, what ultimately became the Presidential Fitness Test. In a related effort, in 1958, the Army Infantry School hosted its first Physical Fitness Seminar, at Fort Benning, Georgia, where one of the main working committees explored the question, “What part can the Nation play in the Army’s progress towards fitness?”. These and other related events bound the Army and the nation more closely on the theme of physical fitness.
Although President Eisenhower launched the Council on Youth Fitness, it was the next president who kicked things into a whole new gear.
Vigor, Vigor, Vigor
Though plagued with physical issues throughout his life, John F. Kennedy (JFK) was a lifelong athlete and passionate about sport and fitness. In 1960, after winning the presidency, he published an article in Sports Illustrated called, “The Soft American” decrying the nation’s lack of physical fortitude. As president, he put new energy into the Council on Youth Fitness. He challenged the Marines, and Americans more broadly, to complete a 50-mile hike in 20 hours, for example. And he significantly ramped up promotion of the Presidential Fitness Test, getting what we would today call influencers, such as Charles Schultz of “Peanuts”, to promote fitness.
In 1962, JFK wrote another article, titled “The Vigor We Need", in Sports Illustrated, again calling for action on fitness while also detailing the results the nation had achieved thus far. A new pilot program had been launched, involving 200,000 students across five states, that showed impressive results: after one six week period, 25 percent of students who had initially failed the fitness test were able to pass; by the end of the school year, on average 80 percent of students who initially failed the tests were able to achieve a passing score. And the number of schools offering a fitness program increased by 13 percent.
JFK’s leadership on national fitness proved to be a high-water mark. No subsequent president put as much personal emphasis on fitness or was able to command such widespread support as he did. This in part reflects the high level of trust Americans had in institutions, including governments, during the time of Eisenhower and Kennedy. As trust in institutions collapsed starting in the mid-1970s, even if a president had wanted to prioritize fitness, he would have faced a much more polarized and distrustful population. But with that said, JFK put unique energy and vigor into his fitness initiatives and his personal leadership was an essential element behind the widespread adoption of youth fitness programs.
Strong Nation, Strong Army
The Presidential Fitness Test went away in 2013. In the years since the heyday of JFK’s leadership on fitness, Americans’ life expectancies have increased and there are signs more Americans are participating in fitness activities, but there are also worrisome signs with respect to the nation’s physical health. Youth fitness and sport activities, much like many elements of social and civic life, are more atomized and commercialized; massive numbers of young people are ineligible for military service due to physical and medical reasons; and many Americans do not regularly work out or engage in strenuous physical activity. All these developments bear on the Army and the nation’s military readiness.
While the Army is often seen more as a recipient of our society’s approach to fitness, as the Council on Youth Fitness history shows, the Army can also be a driver. This is the case, albeit in fairly limited fashion, with the Future Soldier Preparatory Course the Army launched in 2022 to help young Americans “overcome academic and physical fitness barriers to military service.” Military veterans are also actively leading on this front, with veteran or veteran-founded groups like Team Red, White, and Blue, F3 Nation, and the company GoRuck, among many others, engaging tens of thousands of Americans in various kinds of physical workouts. But much more can and should be done to improve our nation’s level of physical strength.
For now, though, we can all go hit the pull-up bar. I’ll see you out there.
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Additional Resources:
The Army’s physical fitness test has long been, and will likely always be, a source of much commentary, analysis, and humor. A selection of articles on this front include: https://warontherocks.com/2018/10/dumb-and-dumber-the-armys-new-pt-test/; https://www.army.mil/article/253358/why_fitness_matters_reviewing_history_of_army_fitness_testing; and, https://www.army.mil/article/285501/army_introduces_new_fitness_test_for_2025.
- and did a great piece on the history of the Army’s PT test: https://www.artofmanliness.com/character/military/history-of-the-armys-pt-test/.
I wrote about the narrative power of Sputnik and offered thoughts on why we have a “Sputnik gap”, which is a gap between the threat level raised by various developments and the degree of coordinated collective response (https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2024/06/11/america_cant_wait_for_a_sputnik_moment_to_have_a_sputnik_response_1037270.html).
Yet another fascinating piece I knew nothing about aside from the presidential fitness test itself which definitely carried some bragging rights at our school for at least a few months haha