FitnessGram Test Battery
FitnessGram is the most widely used youth fitness assessment system in the United States, developed by the Cooper Institute and designed to evaluate health-related physical fitness in children and adolescents. Results are reported against Healthy Fitness Zones rather than competitive rankings, reflecting the battery's emphasis on health outcomes over performance.
Purpose
FitnessGram was developed to give teachers and students a health-referenced assessment tool rather than a competitive ranking. Each test result is interpreted against a Healthy Fitness Zone (HFZ), a range of values associated with reduced health risk, rather than against a peer percentile. This design reflects the battery's intended use in school-based physical education, where the goal is to identify students who may need targeted intervention, not to rank students against each other.
The battery covers the fitness components most strongly associated with health outcomes in youth: cardiorespiratory endurance (via the PACER), muscular endurance of the upper body (push-ups), abdominal endurance (curl-ups), lower-back and hamstring flexibility (sit-and-reach), and trunk extensor strength (trunk lift). The PACER is also used in the Eurofit and ALPHA Fitness batteries, making it one of the most widely validated youth cardiorespiratory field tests in existence.
Tests in the FitnessGram battery
| Test | Measures | Ages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| PACER (20m Shuttle Run) | Cardiorespiratory endurance | 9-17 | Tomkinson 2017 (International 20mSRT) |
| Push-Ups | Upper-body muscular endurance | 10-18 | Santos et al. 2014 (FitnessGram) |
| Curl-Up (FitnessGram) | Abdominal muscular endurance | 10-18 | Santos et al. 2014 (FitnessGram) |
| Back-Saver Sit-and-Reach | Hamstring and lower-back flexibility | 10-18 | Santos et al. 2014 (FitnessGram) |
| Trunk Lift | Trunk extensor strength | 5-17 | Zone-based standards only; no percentile data published |
Administration
FitnessGram is typically administered over one or two physical education sessions. The recommended test order separates the cardiorespiratory test from the muscular endurance and flexibility tests to reduce fatigue effects:
- Back-saver sit-and-reach (before vigorous activity, while muscles are cold or only lightly warmed up)
- Curl-ups
- Trunk lift
- Push-ups
- PACER (performed last; most aerobically demanding)
The PACER is always administered last because it is the most demanding test. Students who cannot complete the progressive stages should stop when they can no longer maintain pace and their final lap count is recorded.
Who is it for?
FitnessGram is designed for school-based fitness assessment of children and adolescents. It requires minimal equipment: an audio player for the PACER, a ruler or sit-and-reach box for flexibility, and a flat surface for the remaining tests. The entire battery can be completed in a standard gymnasium or on a sports field.
As of 2013, FitnessGram was used in mandatory state-level fitness testing programmes in over 20 US states and had been administered to tens of millions of students. It is the primary fitness assessment tool endorsed by the Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE America).
A note on trunk lift norms
The trunk lift test measures the ability to lift the upper body off the floor using back-extensor muscles, with a maximum recorded distance of 12 inches. By design, the Healthy Fitness Zone spans 9-12 inches for all ages and both sexes, meaning the test functions as a pass/fail screen rather than a graded measure. No published study has reported percentile distributions for the trunk lift, so this site does not host norms for that test.
Related batteries
- Eurofit, the European school battery that shares the PACER with FitnessGram and includes a different sit-and-reach variant (standard two-legged box protocol). Eurofit also includes grip strength, standing broad jump, flamingo balance, plate tapping, bent-arm hang, sit-ups, and the 10x5m shuttle run.
- ALPHA Fitness, a streamlined 4-test European battery that also uses the PACER as its cardiorespiratory test.