Fitness Challenges

Fitness Tests: provided by Men's Health

ARE YOU PPFA FIT?


If you remember P.E., you remember the Presidential Physical Fitness Test, the annual battery of gym challenges that humbled even the fittest kid in the class. Turns out it's still tough: Check out the classic standards below, and use our strategies to finally pass each discipline (no medal guaranteed).

Test 1: Fifty-five situps in a minute. Daunting, but doable. Strengthen your abs and up your score with other exercises—hanging leg raises, a set of braced squats, or any number of medicine ball movements.

Test 2: Thirty-foot shuttle run in 8.7 seconds. Try it: Set up to parallel lines 30 feet apart, and place two items (schools often use erasers) at the far line. Sprint down and grab the first item, bringing it back to the start. Then run back down and get the second item, returning to start. Check your time and try to get faster—use our sprint workouts to increase your speed and burn fat, and use these tips to run more efficiently.

Test 3: Mile run in 6:06. You know the answer here: Intervals. Try this program to get started, or push harder to the PPFA standard with this amped-up plan.

Test 4: Thirteen pullups. Tough, but worth it: You'll sculpt your back, biceps, chest, and abs. Use our chinup plan for every man to pump up your tally fast.

Test 5: Sit and reach 7 inches beyond your toes. Wow. Get more flexible without a traditional stretch program—you'll protect yourself from injury with active warm-ups, and yoga moves will make you elastic while you ease pain and improve your strength output.

Are you tough enough to pass these tests? Tell us.

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