Few sports are as strenuous as track and field. You're expected to go all-out, whether it be sprinting, jumping or throwing. This takes a tremendous toll on the joints, bones and muscle groups. Just to survive your event inspires pride of achievement.

And that's one reason why Masters athletes love this game. They've tested themselves and passed. Now comes another test -- with nostalgia as a draw.

Baby boomers of the LBJ years recall the Presidential Physical Fitness Award. Schools nationwide made kids 10 through 17 take a series of tests in P.E. And the best were awarded cool patches. It was an outgrowth of fitness initiatives begun under President Eisenhower and expanded under JFK. John Kennedy, in fact, stressed fitness for all ages, and encouraged members of his staff to join him in 50-mile hikes. (Some declined.)

Here's how The Associated Press reports the latest effort to prod Americans out of their flabby habits:

"If you didn't get a Presidential Physical Fitness Award in school, the government is giving you another chance to prove you're in shape. An adult fitness test is being introduced Wednesday by the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. It will incorporate several of the exercises that millions of students undertake each year as they aim for a certificate signed by the president."

Like the tests of the 1960s, the new set involve three components -- aerobic fitness, muscular strength and flexibility. Specifically, you do a one-mile walk or 1.5-mile run. The strength test is push-ups (done until failure) and sit-ups (done for one minute). And a stretching exercise called the "sit-and-reach" is used to measure flexibility.

Scores from all four of the tests can be entered online. You also plug in your age, gender, height and weight.

"You won't get a presidential certificate," reports the AP, "but the results will then show where you rank among people of the same age. For example, if someone scores in the 75th percentile for push-ups, that means 75 percent of the scores fall below your score."

The Web site is: www.adultfitnesstest.org/

(You can retake the test later, too and re-score yourself.)

Masters tracksters, who rarely shy from a test of fitness, will likely crash the system with their flood of data. But the results won't tell them anything they don't already know.

Just running track at our age puts us in the top 5 percentile.

Tags: Track Award Fitness