Physical education for fostering physical fitness: a comparative study on physical fitness between general and physical education students

Physical Education (PE) curricula especially in professional courses are often designed to offer practical experiences that promote the growth of the most fundamental abilities, motor skills, fitness, and overall health. The study aimed to examine whether physical education promotes physical fitness. Therefore, the researcher compared the selected physical fitness components, including overall fitness, between general and physical education students. A total of ninety-two (92) male students aged 20 to 28 years were chosen as the study’s participants from general and physical education courses. The researcher measured selected physical fitness components, including overall fitness and personal data of the subjects. The descriptive and comparative statistics were computed for statistical analysis. Also, the significance level was set at 0.05. The findings reveal that PE students were significantly better than general students in all aspects of physical fitness and overall fitness, except for BMI. In BMI, general students were significantly better than PE students, but in comparison between trainee groups, no significant differences were found. Also comparing the trainee groups, no significant differences were found in muscle strength. Finally, the study concluded that regular exercise or any other form of physical activity can have a positive impact on a person’s overall fitness level and that physical education programmes in schools, colleges, and universities may help students become more physically fit and healthy.