Trends in U.S. Physical Fitness Behavior

Fifty-Plus Fitness Library

Library : Year 2 | Session 7: Monitoring your fitness program

Trends in U.S. Physical Fitness Behavior

From time to time, there have been major "national health" studies conducted by the Federal Government that touch upon fitness behavior, but these have been sporadic, with inconsistent methodologies that all but negate their tracking value. Following the 1996 Report of the Surgeon General on Physical Activity and Health, it became clear that fitness research would remain low a governmental priority. Quite remarkably, this historic (and costly) initiative was somehow not deemed worthy of dedicated, on-going tracking research that would monitor the nation's progress (or lack thereof) in this vital area of preventive healthcare.

ASD (www.americansportsdata.com) has been tracking the sports and fitness behavior of Americans since 1987, but analysis and data presentation have always focused on individual activities, and not the "big picture". To provide a view of aggregate physical fitness behavior revealing the true state of the "fitness revolution" in America, ASD is pleased to announce the publication of "Trends in U.S. Physical Fitness Behavior (1987 - 2000)".

The present report does not presume to fill this enormous research void, but a unique repository of fitness tracking data derived from a fourteen-year series of national surveys with consistent year-to-year methodology -- and the opportunity to re-analyze historical data -- allows ASD to capture the broad historical contours of the fitness phenomenon.

Whereas the "master trend" analysis will be compelling for both the public and private sectors, the report was designed to benefit equipment manufacturers, the health club industry, practitioners of sports medicine and other fitness professionals. Hence, the new segmentation approaches (outdoor cardio fitness/indoor cardio/strength-training), and venue groupings (home/outdoors/health club exercise). In addition, the analysis contains or begins trending on every conceivable fitness activity, from the most popular such as fitness walking, running, and treadmill exercise; to the "smaller" activities of spinning, aquatics, hand weights, elliptical trainers, cardio kickboxing; and even to the fledgling exercise of pilates training.