Andy NearyI help insurance professionals turn brand awareness into business growth.

The Presidential Fitness Test | Every Fat Kid’s Worst Nightmare.

20 Nov 2023 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:48

Andy Neary recounts a grade-school memory of dreading the Presidential Fitness Test. He describes specific exercises (pull-ups, push-ups, sit-and-reach, jump rope, rope climb) and frames the test as both a fitness measurement and a source of humiliation for overweight children, using self-deprecating humor.

Chapters

In grade school, I had one big enemy. It was not the bully on the playground. It was the Presidential Fitness Test. Who remembers the Presidential Fitness Test? I remember walking in the gym every year. I'd see the pull up bar, I'd see the ropes hanging from the ceiling, and I would just start sweating. I really believe the Presidential Fitness Test, this thing right here, was conducted for two reasons. Yes, they did want to measure the fitness of children every single year. But number two, I believe they held this fitness award, this fitness test, just to tell the fat kids how out of shape they were. I couldn't do any pull ups. I could barely do any push ups. My sit and reach could be measured in centimeters, not inches. I could barely jump rope. And climbing that rope. Oh, hell no.