physical activity

Growing up in Canada in the 80s, I was subject to the cheesy yet incredibly catchy “participACTION” campaign.

ParticipACTION was started as a government program in the ’70s. Cutbacks caused the program to be ceased in 2001, but it was revived in 2007 thanks to a Federal grant.

While the general ParticipACTION program encouraged physical activity of any kind, all Canadian students also had to participate in the yearly Canada Fitness Tests. These tests assigned students an “Award of Excellence”, Gold, Silver, Bronze or “participant” status based on their ability to perform a number of exercises, included the dreaded “flexed arm hang.” This program was so much a part of Canadian culture that a reference thereto is made in the 1998 Tragically Hip song “Fireworks”: “Next to your comrades in the national fitness program / Caught in some eternal flexed-arm hang / Droppin’ to the mat in a fit of laughter / Showed no patience, tolerance or restraint”.

In researching for this post, I came across a blog post entitled “Canada Fitness” about this program, where nearly 100 people had left comments fondly (or not so fondly) remembering what level of fitness they had achieved.

I’ll admit I don’t recall what grade I achieved. I was naturally an athletic child, playing soccer and softball in elementary school, so I didn’t worry too much about what the test was meant to illustrate. It was just a different workout on a specific day. (The Cadets continue to use a version of this program: http://titanous.com/cadets/fitness_test.pdf)

In contrast, for some the CFT was truly a test. There were participants who would remember exactly what they needed to get to to reach a milestone, and perform exactly to that level. This is the equivalent of the students who would neglect their homework all year, only to be cramming madly the week before exams.

We all have different motivations and approaches. Some of us will do our homework diligently to achieve an overall level of knowledge or fitness, and others will do what they need to ‘pass the test’. Does your program account for both?

Tagged as: action, fitness, physical activity, program development

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