Conference At Annapolis: First Blow For Fitness

Another is determining the relationship of physical activity to health. Some authorities believe that lack of exercise can be partially responsible for everything from shortness of breath to degenerative diseases like arteriosclerosis and coronary thrombosis. But the evidence is not really conclusive.

Certainly there is agreement that fitness retrogresses without physical activity. During the conference Creighton Hale, research director of Little League Baseball, reported on a study that adds to the data supporting this fact. Dr. Hale found that approximately half of the boys who scored low in the Kraus-Weber physical fitness test at the end of the school year were greatly improved by the end of the summer. But at the completion of the following school year, there was a marked drop in fitness. Six times as many boys showed lower scores in June 1956 than they had in September 1955.

A research project which may define some of these areas has been proposed by Dr. Raymond A. Weiss of New York University, who was not present at the conference. Dr. Weiss plans to subject a group of sedentary adults to a progressively stepped-up physical activity program lasting two years. Comparisons of differences between this group and a second control group that leads a normally sedentary life during the same period, should yield the first concrete evidence on the relationship of certain kinds and degrees of exercise to general fitness for living.

Other suggestions for pertinent research are contained in House Bill No. 11521 to establish a council of national fitness composed of 24 members "from the fields of medicine, physical education and related sciences." Introduced a month ago in the House of Representatives by Congressman James C. Murray (Dem., Ill.) and now in committee, the bill calls for study of 1) "the immediate and long-range effects of various forms of physical exertion on individuals at various ages," 2) "the medical, physical, physiological and emotional...social and educational aspects of all sports at various age levels," 3) "the required time that should be allotted from an elementary or high school student's school day to a supervised physical education program."

Only after definitive answers to these questions are found can a sound national fitness program be set up. But Annapolis may prove to have been Round One in the fitness fight. As Nixon said: "This can be the beginning of the solution or the shelving of the project." Dr. Kraus, an enthusiastic and accomplished rock climber, put his conclusion in terms of the sport he loves: "It's like climbing a six (the most difficult degree of ascent). You can't plot the climb from the ground, you have to get up to the first ledge before you can even see beyond it. In this conference I think we've reached the first ledge in the climb for national fitness."