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A recent FitnessGram-based assessment of 3225 Nigerian youth aged 9-16 years from Benue State revealed that 82.7% of males and 78.7% of females achieved the healthy fitness zone (HFZ) for aerobic capacity (AZ), while 94.5% and 96.9% respectively met HFZ body mass index (BMI) criteria. These rates markedly exceed typical AZ achievement in United States and European cohorts, where HFZ attainment often hovers around 55%-80% and BMI failure can surpass 70%. The Nigerian findings point to protective lifestyle patterns rooted in habitual, unstructured physical activity, yet age- and sex-specific gaps-particularly among older males and adolescent females-signal emerging vulnerabilities. This editorial situates these results within global fitness disparities, questions the universal application of largely United States-derived FitnessGram standards, and underscores the need for ancestry-sensitive benchmarks. It further highlights opportunities for Nigeria to establish national fitness surveillance and school-based interventions that preserve early advantages as urbanization, sedentary behavior, and nutritional transitions intensify.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.5409\/wjcp.119985","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,2]],"date-time":"2026-06-02T16:08:04Z","timestamp":1780416484000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Nigerian youth FitnessGram edge: A bright signal with important caveats"],"prefix":"10.5409","volume":"15","author":[{"given":"Vijaya Lakshmi","family":"Bodiga","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Praveen 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