Virtual Personal Fitness Merit Badge

What:  Personal Fitness is a whole lifestyle, Eagle Scout required merit badge that addresses and explores all aspects of personal health and fitness. It is also one of the long-trail merit badges that requires sustained attention to detail for at least 14 weeks. It brings together many aspects of health, including nutrition, sleep, and flexibility.

 Meet your Counselor - Dr. Thieme is a retired Marine who served two tours in Amphibious Reconnaissance, including time running the Marine Corps Amphibious Reconnaissance Course in Coronado, and multiple infantry tours. He has completed a combination of more than forty triathlons, marathons, and ultramarathons. He has served as a Personal Fitness Merit Badge counselor for almost twenty years. He has led multiple Boy Scout units on high adventure outings in Europe and the United States and thinks that the 50 mile badge should be required for every Life Scout. He still does fifty push-ups every morning before the first cup of coffee.

WHO: Open to all Scouts BSA members.

HOW:  This Merit Badge will be taught in a virtual classroom. The class has a capacity of 20 Scouts. Small classroom size provides all students with the opportunity to share and interact with the counselors and other Scouts. Scouts should be prepared to be challenged and to join the conversation! Participants who do not engage with the class may not receive credit for the badge. Scouts must be prompt for all badge sessions. Late participants may not receive credit for all requirements. Scouts must use a device with video to access this class.

 Before beginning work on any merit badge, Scouts are to have a discussion with their unit leader regarding the specific badge and counselor.

WHEN: This class will be held virtually over two sessions:

May 26, 2020 4:30PM-6:00PM EST.

May 28, 2020 4:30PM-6:00PM EST.

Scouts must attend both sessions to complete the offered requirements.

After registering, Scouts will receive a link and login information via email the day the class is scheduled. Scouts will also receive instructor details that can be used to connect to the counselor on Scoutbook. This assures that completed requirements are easily recorded. 

PREREQUISITES:  Current BSA Physical and a current dental exam. Come to class prepared to discuss requirements 1a3, 1a4, 2a-d, 3d, 4b, 5b, and 6a-b.

Suggested supplies/prep-work for students: It is strongly recommended that Scouts create a workout schedule in Excel or Google Sheets- there are several different formats available online. Then this should all go in a binder for tracking. The “Sample Fitness Program Activity Log” or similar sheet should go on the refrigerator and be filled out every day. This will be explained further in class. Just as there are no shortcuts to Eagle Scout, so too, there are no shortcuts to personal fitness.  

Other Details: Parents, please work with your Scouts to ensure that they do the prerequisites, and then their required daily exercise. The reason this is a twelve-week tracker is that sports psychologists tell us that once you do something for twelve weeks it becomes a habit. For the one-mile run, you can clock it with a fitness device, the pedometer on a smart phone, in the car (old school!) or using this web-based route measurement tool: https://legacy.usatf.org/routes/map/