School children in Central Pretoria, South Africa, have a high level of excessive percentage body fat, with girls having significantly higher percentage body fat compared to boys. Racially, black children were fatter than white children. The excessive percentage body fat observed among the children in this study has implications for their health and fitness.

An eight-week mat Pilates exercise programme may contradict or even reverse some of the most serious consequences of ageing associated with an increased fat mass and reduced lean body mass in elderly females.

In the United States of America, 6.2 million individuals use elliptical motion trainers. However, graded exercise test protocols to estimate peak oxygen consumption using elliptical motion trainers have not been developed for the general population.