![]() They have argued that the truths encountered by a given individual are relative, and that the way a person perceives the world is inherently subjective. Stereotypical Post-Modernists have expressed a healthy scepticism towards “ scientific” explanations of phenomena that claim to be valid for all groups, societies, cultures, traditions, and races. The actual term “ Post-Modernism” was coined in part as a reaction against experimental scientists who pursued with seeming ever-growing success an objective description of reality during the Modern Era. This chapter discusses developments in health and fitness over the last fifty years, a period that many historians would class as the Post-Modern Era. Olympic and Masters Games now cater to women, athletes with disability and the elderly, but athletic competition has lost much of its earlier idealism, and any positive impact upon population health and fitness is limited. International sports programmes have received ever growing support from governments and commercial sponsors, with a multiplication of the corresponding professional associations. In Public Schools, the emphasis of Physical Educators is shifting from the training of sports teams to the teaching of life-long exercise skills. Attempts to increase physical activity in the general population have as yet had only modest success. Health and fitness landmarks over the past 50 years include the standardization of test methodology, development of tools for population screening and testing, completion of representative National Health and Fitness surveys, quasi-experimental evaluations of school and employee fitness programmes, definition of minimum occupational fitness needs, demonstration of the beneficial effects of exercise on the aging process, and documentation of the high fitness levels associated with a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. However, optimal evidence-based exercise prescriptions have yet to be defined for many conditions. Consensus conferences have underlined both the safety and the health benefits of physical activity and disease, and Universities offer an increasing range of doctoral programmes in Exercise Sciences and Kinesiology. The cardiovascular disease epidemic is partially contained, but obesity and diabetes show a growing prevalence. has finally introduced a scheme of universal health insurance. Political interest in physical fitness and sport remains spasmodic, but the U.S. ![]() ![]() New technologies have speeded research in many areas of Exercise Science during the Post-Modern Era. ![]()
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