In the spirit of Presidents' Day, here are our exercising U.S Presidents:
John Adams (1797-1801) would skip school to go hunting and fishing. As an adult, he enjoyed walking and would do so for daily exercise, sometimes up to five miles.
Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809) was a huge advocate of exercise. He enjoyed fishing, was the United State's first known spelunker, and would exercise daily, no matter the weather. Here are a slew of quotes by him in regard to exercising: Jefferson exercise quotes on monticello.org.
John Quincy Adams (1825-1829) often took a morning swim in the Potomac River. He worked until he could swim for 80 minutes at a time without touching the bottom.
Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865) was a wrestler.
Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877) set the high jump record at West Point. This record held for 25 years.
Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909) was, as most of us know, a very active president and pursued what he called "the strenuous life". He participated in boxing, tennis, rowing, polo, horseback riding and hiking. This active lifestyle was encouraged at a young age by his father to help him combat his asthmatic condition. (source: Wikipedia: Theodore Roosevelt)
Warren Harding (1921-1923) golfed twice a week and has a golf course named for him.
Herbert Hoover (1929-1933) exercised every morning and would include throwing a medicine ball in his workouts.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933-1945) was active as a child. He enjoyed horseback riding, polo, shooting, rowing, golf and swimming. He was also a college football player. (source: FDR Library)
Harry S. Truman (1945-1953) took a two mile walk every morning at 128 steps per minute.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961) played college football at Harvard. After a knee injury sidelined him, he became a cheerleader. While in office, he enjoyed golfing and had a putting green installed on the White House lawn.
John F. Kennedy (1961-1963) had back problems and would exercise and swim every day to help this health issue. He also sailed, golfed and played touch football.
Richard Nixon (1969-1974) played football while attending Whittier College.
Gerald R. Ford (1974-1977) was an extremely talented football player. He was named to the All City team in Grand Rapids, Michigan, played for the University of Michigan Wolverines football team and was offered contracts to play for the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers. There is a detailed account of his football accomplishments on Wikipedia: Gerald R. Ford's football accomplishments. He was also an avid golfer.
Jimmy Carter (1976-1980) played high school basketball and ran cross-country at the Naval Academy.
George Bush (1988-1992) was captain of the baseball team at Yale, played tennis and jogged.
George W. Bush (2000-2008) played basketball and was a cheerleader in high school. He is the first president to have run a marathon, and he credits running with helping him to quit smoking and drinking. Runner's World had the opportunity to interview him, and it's a great article detailing his views on exercising and how it has impacted him. You can check it out at this link: Running with President George Bush.
Barack Obama (2009-present): It's no secret that the Obama family is a huge advocate of staying fit. Here is an article on WebMD discussing this: The Obamas: First Couple of Fitness. (Note: I only skimmed the article, but it looks to be pretty interesting. (exclusive source: www.webmd.com)
The few links I posted above have some very interesting information. I hope you'll take a few minutes and check them out. In the meantime, happy Presidents' Day and I hope you've had time to fit in a good run...
Most of my information was found at http://www.classroomhelp.com/lessons/Presidents/, who also gained their information from other reputable sites. I have noted other sources that I used in addition to this site, as well as the one site I used exclusively, without classroomhelp.com.
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