Thomas County Central High School is emphasizing personal fitness by putting its Physical Education students through their paces.

New state standards require each student in a high school P.E. class to participate in the Pacer Test, which measures cardiorespiratory endurance.

“The Pacer Test helps the students by giving them a personal goal to set, reach and improve upon,” said Coach Chad Parkerson, P.E. teacher.

The test consists of push-ups, sit-ups and 20 meters of running and making the lines on time.

“My expectations for my students are to give me nothing but ‘EFFORT’,” Parkerson said.

The Pacer Test challenges each student on an individual level. How a student does on the test can be related to fitness level, according to Parkerson.

“It depends on your fitness level, anything over 100 is very good,” he said.

The test is given at the beginning of the class to see where a student’s fitness level is and again at the end to gage the student’s level of improvement.

“One of my students had a total of 57 push-ups and that was one of my highest,” Parkerson said.