Health Education during the Pandemic: Physical Fitness Course Applications and Personal Physical Fitness Test (PPFT) in University Students

Abstract

The physical fitness course is a mandatory subject for undergraduate students at Universitas Negeri Surabaya, Indonesia. However, there is limited physical activity possibly performed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, conventional physical fitness tests and measurements could not be conducted in a conventional way. This study aimed to test the possibility of the Personal Physical Fitness Test (PPT) being implemented by college students who were enrolled in a physical fitness course. There were 1.639 college students aged 18 ± 0.81 years old who participated in this study. The independent physical fitness test was designed to represent several physical components i.e., standing board jump (lower body strength). Plank (core strength), push-ups (upper body strength), and one-minute skipping (cardiorespiratory). The data were in the normal distribution. Male students performed better than females in every test (p < 0.05). Furthermore, the data were categorized on each test based on gender. The categories are excellent, good, fair, poor, and very poor. In a further study, the personal physical fitness test could be implemented in a larger sample size.