Paralleling this interest in the ph

Paralleling this interest in the physical fitness of youth was the rising concern about the death rate from coronary heart disease in the middle-aged American male status of the population underscored the fact that degenerative diseases related to poor health habits (e.g., high-fat diet, smoking, inactivity) were responsible for more deaths than the classic infectious and contagious disease. In 1966, a major symposium highlighted the need for more research in the area of physical activity and health (31). In the 1970s, there was an increase in the use of exercise tests to diagnose heart disease and to aid in the prescription of exercise programs to improve cardiovascular health. Large corporations developed "executive" fitness programs to improve the health status of that high-risk group. While most Americans are now familiar with such programs, and some students of exercise physiology seek careers in "corporate fitness," such programs are not new. The photo in Figure 0.2, taken from the 1923 edition of McKenzie's Exercise in Education and Medicine (25), shows a group of businessmen in costume doing dance exercises. In short, the idea that regular physical activity is an important part of a healthy lifestyle was "rediscovered," If any questions remained about the importance of physical activity to health, the publication of the Surgeon General's Report in 1996 and the appearance of the first U.S. Physical Activity Guidelines in 2008 put them to rest (see "A Closer Look 0.1").