A coach-ready, kid-friendly, standards-aligned ecosystem for the relaunched Presidential Fitness Test — built for schools, districts, chambers of health, and homeschool families who want to do it right.
Anyone can hand out a stopwatch. The events take thirty minutes. The whole-person coaching takes a career. Every push-up is also a moment of grit, every missed mark a moment of growth mindset, every leaderboard a moment of empathy, every score sheet a moment of integrity. Dr. Rob Gillio built FFH to prep teachers for all of it — the physical, the emotional, and the character work that a real fitness test surfaces in every kid.
The Presidential Fitness Test ran from 1966 to 2012, when it was folded into the Presidential Youth Fitness Program / FitnessGram® model. It was the country's shared yardstick for youth fitness — and it generated a generation of stories, both inspiring and traumatic.
On July 31, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order (amending EO 13265) restoring the Presidents Physical Fitness Test and revitalizing the President's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition. Official benchmarks were published in May 2026 at whitehouse.gov/fitness. Schools nationwide are administering the test again — many for the first time in over a decade.
Force for Health Academy gives you the events PLUS the human side: coach training for the emotional moments, branching simulations for character-defining decisions, a Learn-It / Live-It / Share-It engagement loop, and a whole-person score letter that names the grit, growth mindset, empathy, integrity, and resilience your kid showed up with — not just the rep count.
The events are physical. The growth is not. Dr. Rob built FFH around six pillars — five aligned to the CASEL 5 social-emotional learning framework, plus physical capacity — because every push-up, every missed mark, and every leaderboard surfaces a moment where character is built or quietly missed. We train you to spot the moment and coach into it.
"The fitness test isn't really about fitness." It's about how a kid handles their own body in front of other people. It's about whether they cheer the kid behind them or roll their eyes. It's about whether they count their own reps honestly when no one's watching. It's about whether they walk into the gym thinking "I can't" or "not yet." Coaches who only watch the stopwatch miss most of what just happened. — Dr. Rob Gillio, MD
Aerobic endurance, muscular strength, flexibility, body awareness. The body the kid showed up with — meeting it where it is, building it where it can grow.
FitnessGram® HFZNaming what the body feels. Knowing what's hard, what's a strength, what's improving. Owning the real number without spinning it.
CASEL 5Managing nerves before the PACER. Pacing the mile. Resetting after a failed rep. The internal regulation that makes the body's work possible.
CASEL 5 · Trauma-Informed PENoticing the kid struggling at the back of the PACER. Recognizing that everyone shows up with a different starting line. Cheering rather than comparing.
Character.org Principle 4Replacing "I can't" with "not yet." Sustained effort across discomfort. Trying again after the missed mark. Cheering the kid who beat you because their win doesn't take from yours.
Dweck · DuckworthCounting your own reps honestly when no one's watching. Saying "that one didn't go below 90°." Owning the real score and feeling proud of it because it's real.
CASEL 5 · Character.orgAs of May 2026, the President's Council has published the official test structure at whitehouse.gov/fitness. Three categories, two event options each, students pick one event per category. Hit your age + sex benchmark in all three categories to earn the Presidential Physical Fitness Award.
Hit your age + sex benchmark in all three categories.
Performance in the 50th–84th percentile range.
Completes all six test components, regardless of score.
Official benchmark numbers as published by the President's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition (May 2026 release). Pick your sex, pick your age. Each category card shows the two event options + your benchmark. Hit one event per category to earn the Presidential Physical Fitness Award.
Hit at least one event benchmark from every category. Train hard — you've got this!
The official Presidents Physical Fitness Test is K-12 (ages 6–17). For families who want to take the test together, FFH includes supplemental healthy-adult ranges drawn from Cooper Institute Adult Fitness Test norms and ACSM Healthy Fitness Standards.
These are not official Presidential Fitness Test benchmarks — they're a Force for Health add-on so the whole family can do the test together. Parents and grandparents: hit a benchmark from each category at your age and you've earned bragging rights at the dinner table.
Curl-ups (1-min max) · Plank (sec) · Mile (min:sec) · 20m beep test (laps) · Right-angle push-ups · Pull-ups — Male / Female:
FFH refreshes this card the day the President's Council publishes any update. Spot a number that looks off, or have a question? Email lucy@theforceforhealth.com.
Four ready-to-use modules. Pair them with a real school gym, a community center, or a homeschool living room. Earn coins as you go.
Ten real testing-day moments — anxiety, asthma, body-image, IEP accommodations, heat illness, religion, gender, language barriers, parent calls. Coaches make a call at every decision point and see how it ripples through the kid, the family, and the staff.
A 3×3 bingo card with one coaching scenario per square. Complete a row, column, or diagonal for bonus healthy coins. Full blackout earns the jackpot. Perfect for staff meetings, PE methods classes, or chamber training nights.
Five themed rooms — Cardio, Strength, Flexibility, Recovery, Wellness — stocked with real Force for Health video curriculum and Coach Lucy music slots. Watch a video to 90% and earn coins. Great for at-home days, sub plans, and homeschool.
Five 8.5×11 station cards with cues, safety notes, and QR codes — plus a full Teacher's Guide with lesson plan, rubric, inclusion modifications, and a week-by-week prep block. Print, laminate, and you're ready for test day.
The 2025 Executive Order is just the policy umbrella. The real work is showing that what you do in your gym maps to SHAPE America, NHES, FitnessGram, HHS, and your state's PE framework. Every FFH module is mapped for you.
Restored the Presidents Physical Fitness Test & revitalized the President's Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition. Schools nationwide administer the official test, recognize achievement via three award tiers (Presidential / National / Participation), and report participation.
Standards 1–4 covering movement competence, application of concepts, health-enhancing fitness, and personal/social responsibility. The FFH tool kit hits all four.
8 standards covering health literacy, decision-making, advocacy, and self-management. The FFH Coaching Sims directly target Standards 4, 5, 6, and 7.
The actual battery used by the President's Council since 2012 — health-related fitness zones, not norm-referenced rankings. We teach the protocols and the proper score interpretation.
Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child — the framework administrators use to justify wellness investment. FFH delivers PE + Health Ed + Social/Emotional + Family Engagement in one ecosystem.
60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity per day for kids; HP2030 target PA-09 for adolescents meeting aerobic + muscle-strengthening guidelines. FFH builds toward both.
Empowered learner, digital citizen, knowledge constructor. Coins, leaderboards, and simulations turn fitness data into a digital learning loop kids actually engage with.
Every state PE framework that aligns to SHAPE America 2024 inherits FFH's mapping automatically. We provide state-specific crosswalk PDFs for grant and curriculum submissions.
The Teacher's Guide includes an Inclusion Modifications grid for IEP and 504 students — so the test is administered legally, fairly, and with dignity for every kid.
Each audience gets its own onboarding path, sample budget, standards crosswalk, and family communication kit. Click in to see the full pitch.
Your Game Card, training plan, character trophies, and Coach Lucy. Yes — there's a dashboard built just for you.
Open My Student Dashboard →Roll out the test schoolwide. Defensible to your board, sensitive to your families, and easy on your PE staff.
See the Principal Path →One vendor, one platform, K-12. Standards crosswalk, district dashboard, grant-ready language, optional CRM.
See the District Path →Bring it to your Chamber of Health, Boys & Girls Club, YMCA, faith community, or athletic foundation as a community event.
See the Group Path →A full PE-grade unit with assessment, lesson plan, video coaching, and family leaderboard. Done in your living room.
See the Homeschool Path →Most pilots are fully running within 30 days. Free tier available for chambers, faith communities, and homeschool co-ops.
Choose your role (school, district, group, homeschool). Tell us how many kids. We provision your dashboard.
Run the 10 Coaching Sims and the Bingo Card in a single staff PD session. ~90 minutes, fully self-guided.
Print the 5 station cards, hang them at your gym/yard/living room. Optional QR codes link kids to drill videos.
Run the events. Enter scores. Print certificates. Share family-friendly score letters. Earn coins along the way.
Free pilot slots open through the 2026-27 school year for Chambers of Health, faith-community groups, and homeschool co-ops. Schools and districts: ask about our launch packages.
🚀 Start Your Application → 📋 Try the Coach Sims