Video 9 - Muscular Fitness – Push-up test of muscular endurance
‘All information contained in these videos is taken from the ACSM’s Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription, 10th Edition’
Muscular endurance is the ability of a muscle group to execute repeated muscle actions over a period of time sufficient to cause muscular fatigue, or to maintain a specific percentage of the 1-RM for a prolonged period of time.
A simple field test of upper body muscular endurance is the push-up endurance test. An appropriate warm up should be conducted prior to performing this test.
Protocol
- Starting position
- Men – ‘Down’ position – hands pointing forward and under the shoulder, back straight, head up, using the toes as the pivotal point.
- Women – modified ‘knee push-up’ position – legs together, lower leg in contact with the mat and ankles plantar flexed, back straight, hands shoulder width apart, head up, using knees as pivotal point.
- The subject must raise the body by straightening the elbows and return to the ‘down’ position, until the chin touches the mat. The stomach should not touch the mat.
- For both men and women, the subject’s back must be straight at all times, and the subject must push up to a straight arm position.
- The maximal number of push-ups performed consecutively without rest is counted as the score.
- The test is stopped when the subject strains forcibly or unable to maintain the appropriate technique within two repetitions.
Interpretation
Total number of completed push-ups can be compared to normative data according to age and gender using table 4.11 (P102)