It has been stated that there is no relationship between physical activity and fitness. However, it would seem that among those who tend to be more fit, daily energy expenditure levels would be higher. Additionally, the 1996 Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity emphasized the need to increase physical activity to improve one’s overall health. However, NASPE continues to maintain a national content standard for children, stating that middle school students should, “Achieve and maintain a health enhancing level of physical fitness.” Due to the apparent conflicting emphases, the purpose of this study was to examine whether there was a relationship between physical activity and physical fitness. Two hundred and twenty five students, ages 11-13 attending a rurally located middle school (51% male, 48.9% female, 92.3% White, 4.6 Native American, 1.7% Hispanic, and 1.2% African American) grades 6-8 participated in the study. All students (n=225) enrolled in the same middle school, which is located in a mountainous setting in the Northwest United States served as subjects. Subjects were administered the Fitnessgram test items; pacer, push-ups, curl-ups and the backsaver sit and reach. All tests were completed in one day except in the case of absenteeism. Bouchard, et al. (1997) three-day physical activity self reports were administered after all fitness data were collected. Subjects were trained in the appropriate completion of the instrument by prior to the completion of this instrument. One hundred and seventy instruments (N=168) were correctly completed. Significant relationships were found between levels of physical activity and the pacer (p<.005), and push-up tests (p<.05). It must also be noted that even though significance was noted in the relationship, the relationships were small enough (r= .22) and (r=.16) respectively that caution should be used in assessing the meaningful relationship. The small correlation would indicate that the contribution to physical activity scores accounted for very little of the total variance. It would appear that students who are more physically active are more cardiovascularly fit. However, it should also be noted that due to the small correlation many other factors are involved in fitness scores of middle schools students. Further studies should focus on identifying those factors and the contribution of each to overall fitness and physical activity.Keyword(s): exercise/fitness, middle school issues, physical activity