But there is reason to challenge the common assumption that being part of a high school athletic program is good way to get exercise.
Being part of a team often, although not always, ensures some amount of physical fitness. The delivery of that benefit can, however, be enormously inefficient.
A student may spend several hours a day in, e.g., a football or basketball practice. But that does not mean that he’s spending several hours in strenuous physical exercise.
In such teams, players might sit for a long time on bleachers, listening to the coach talk about strategy and tactics. They spend time standing line, waiting for their turn at various drills or relay activities.
During practices, players receive instructions from athletic trainers or physical therapists about injury prevention, and they spend time organizing fundraisers. They may have to wait to use various pieces of exercise equipment.
A three- or four-hour practice does not, therefore, mean that a student had three or four hours of physical exercise.
By contrast, a merely 20 to 30 minutes of running, swimming, or bicycling is a much more time-efficient way to deliver physical fitness. Likewise, a similar amount of time spent in calisthenics is an effective program to obtain a significant amount of exercise in short period of time.
Perhaps the time has come, in the culture of American secondary schools, to place more emphasis on physical fitness and less emphasis on organized team sports.
