(Photo: Offmetro.com)

According to the American College of Sports Medicine’s (ACSM) recently released 2012 American Fitness Index, New York ranks 22nd on a list of the country’s healthiest cities. The city that placed first? Minneapolis-St. Paul.

New York did move up eight spots since last year, but we’re still baffled.

Here’s the thing: there are many areas in the report that our city needs to improve on. We lost points, for example, for the percentage of residents with diabetes and a high death rate from heart disease. That’s a serious bummer.

But over the past few years, our city has been getting healthier, one farmer’s market at a time. Our sugar-and-fat hating mayor has banned smoking in parks and on beaches, banned big-gulp sodas, paved miles of bike lanes, and is on track to plant a million new trees.

And here’s the worst part: The Big Apple lost points in the ranking because of too few tennis courts, swimming pools, golf courses, and baseball diamonds. The ACSM is clearly New York-real estate clueless.

How about ultra-packed spin studios, boutique fitness hotspots and juice bars on every block, and outdoor yoga and fitness classes in every park and pier from May through September? We don’t have a lot of space, but we know how to use what we’ve got.

Next year, maybe the bike-share program will give us another boost towards the top.