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1. Get down on all fours, placing your hands slightly wider than your shoulders. 2. Straighten your arms and legs. 3. Lower your body until your chest nearly touches the floor. 4. Pause, then push yourself back up. 5. Repeat. Push-ups are not only a great way to build upper body strength and endurance. They are also a good way to test that strength and endurance. The push-up test is a basic fitness test used by coaches, trainers, and athletes to assess upper body fitness and to monitor progress during strength and fitness training. This simple test helps you compare your own upper body muscular endurance to others of your age and gender and track your fitness program over time. Why Do the Push-Up Test?Strength and endurance in the muscles of the upper body—specifically the chest, shoulders, triceps, and core—is a good indication of overall fitness. This simple exercise engages muscles throughout the entire body, from head to toe, in order to maintain a rigid position. Upper body strength and endurance is essential for athletes such as swimmers, climbers, or golfers who demand strength and power from their arms and shoulders to perform well and avoid injury. But a strong upper body is also important for everyone who wants to perform everyday movements, such as carrying luggage or picking up children, with ease and without risking injury. Primary Muscles Used in a Push-UpThese key muscles allow you to perform a push-up:
While performing push-ups, you lift nearly 75% of your total body weight. Using a modified push-up position reduces this amount to about 60% of your total body weight. How to Perform the Push-Up Test There are
two versions of the push-up test. You can do the test on your own or with a trainer or friend assisting you to check your form and help you count reps. Standard Push-Up TestThis version is used for men:
Modified Push-Up TestA modified version of the push-up test is used for women, who tend to have less relative upper body strength than men. The test is conducted in the same way as above, but uses an "on the knee" push-up position.
How to Score Your ResultsAfter your complete the test, compare your results to the norms and recommendations for your age and sex. To assess your training progress, you can do the push-up test every eight to 12 weeks. You will see a variety of charts and scoring, depending on the source the tester uses. This chart is from "Essentials of Exercise Physiology." Other standards include the YMCA's "The Y's Way to Physical Fitness," the National Strength and Conditioning Association's "NSCA's Essentials of Personal Training," and the American College of Sports Medicine's "ACSM's Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription."
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By Elizabeth Quinn, MS Thanks for your feedback! When administering the push up test to assess muscular endurance a male subject should start in what position?Perform a short warm-up before performing any fitness testing. Begin in a push-up position on your hands and toes with your hands shoulder-width apart and elbows fully extended. 4. While keeping a straight line from the toes to hips, and hips to shoulders, lower your upper body so your elbows bend to 90 degrees.
Which principle of training States in order to improve fitness a person should exercise at a level that is greater than what the body is accustomed?Overload. The exercise science principle of overload states that a greater than normal stress or load on the body is required for training adaptation to take place. What this means is that in order to improve our fitness, strength, or endurance, we need to increase the workload accordingly.
What is an appropriate recommendation for stretching?But you can achieve the most benefits by stretching regularly, at least two to three times a week. Even 5 to 10 minutes of stretching at a time can be helpful. Skipping regular stretching means that you risk losing the potential benefits.
Which type of exercise is most likely to increase range of motion around a joint which type of exercise is most likely to increase range of motion around a joint?To increase ROM, all types of stretching are effective, although PNF-type stretching may be more effective for immediate gains. To avoid decrease in strength and performance that may occur in athletes due to static stretching before competition or activity, dynamic stretching is recommended for warm-up.
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