Health-and-Fitness online information.

Air Force and outside health officials have taken a good look at the service's new fitness program and made a number of recommendations for improvement, including adding height and weight back into the standard for measuring abdominal circumference.

The new fitness program encourages all members of the Air Force team to make exercising and eating right a permanent part of their lives. The program's new fitness test, implemented in January 2004, measures aerobic fitness with a 1.5-mile run, body composition with waist size, and muscle fitness with push-ups and sit-ups.

The overall maximum score possible is 100 points, with 50 points possible for the run, 30 points for the abdominal measurement, and 10 points each for the sit-ups and push-ups.

Air Force health officials and experts from a number of outside agencies and universities have completed their first assessment of the new fitness program and decided to award full points on the body composition component of the test if the body mass index is within a healthy range--between 19 and 25. This change is being made to accommodate Airmen unable to obtain the minimum abdominal circumference but who are still at a normal weight for their height.

The Air Force originally disregarded height and weight as part of the body composition standard based on the belief that waist size is an indicator of health, regardless of how tall a person is. While Air Force officials still believe this to be true, they concede that people with a normal BMI are at a minimal risk for disease or cardiac incidents.

The BMI is calculated by taking a person's weight in kilograms and dividing it by that person's height in meters squared. There are several Web sites that will calculate BMI, including http://nhlbisupport.com/bmi/bmicalc.htm.

Other major recommendations for improving the fitness program include:

* Lengthening run times for tests conducted at higher elevations. Time lengths will vary depending on altitude, but specific changes have not been determined.

* Retesting Airmen who are rated "marginal" at 90 days instead of 180 days. Air Force Reserve Command will continue to retest people who score in the marginal category, along with those who score in the poor category, at 180 days. The Reserve will include this provision in its supplement to Air Force Instruction 10-248--The Air Force Fitness Program.

# posted by Medical Information : 3:56 AM