PHIT America Month launched in May to help promote and encourage Americans to learn more about and enjoy being physically active, exercising and playing sports.
The idea for PHIT America Month came about in order to address the issue of inactivity in the United States, as 81.7 million Americans are physically inactive; and inactivity affects health care spending, academic achievement and military readiness, as stated in a press release from PHIT America, a nonprofit campaign founded in January 2013 that focuses on overcoming the consequences of inactivity through strategic approaches.
"Within 10 years, the 'Inactivity Pandemic' will implode our health care system, accelerate our life-expectancy decline, and threaten the military's ability to defend our sovereignty," said Jim Baugh, founder, PHIT America. "Sadly, a recent global study on exercise ranked U.S. children 47th out of 50 countries in worldwide fitness. Physical activity needs to take center stage in the country."
The goal for PHIT America Month is to get active people to be even more physically active and offer programs to get sedentary Americans physically moving. Throughout the month, PHIT America will promote and publicize walking events, running events, swimming events and tennis events. What's more, the tennis industry also is proclaiming May as Play Tennis Month. For those who are interested, runners and walkers can participate in a virtual 5K event. In addition, Beachbody is offering 14 days of its popular "At Home Fitness Workouts," free of charge. And, Practice has more than 100,000 fitness facilities with fitness events scheduled for the month of May. In addition, and on PHITMonth.org, Fit Tips—ideas and suggestions on how to stay physically active and healthy—will be provided.
Tennis will have more than 1,500 facilities offering events in May to "get off the couch and on the court." And, the tennis industry has set some high goals. On April 20, the tennis industry was expected to launch Play Tennis Month with an event—The One Million Calorie Burn—to burn one million calories at one event using 1,000 players on 100 courts at the USTA National Campus in Central Florida. In May, the tennis industry's goal is to burn 10 million calories.
During and after PHIT America Month, participants will be asked to make a small donation to PHIT America to "Get A Child Moving For Life." Contributions will be used to expand PHIT America GO! Grants program which, to date, has affected nearly 200,000 school children through grants being awarded to their physical education classes.