Fitness Check-Up #4
Week 4 of the Fit Score. Here is fitness check-up test #4.
Fitness Test #4) Air Force 2-minute Hand-Release Push-up Test
Why this test:
Upper body strength is important for a number of reasons, but
according to a 44-year study on over 2,000 people published in
the National Library of Medicine, those with better upper body
strength live longer and have later onset of disease. The hand-re-
lease push-up assures that your body goes all the way to the ground
with each push-up, thus giving the data more accuracy.
Purpose:
Test upper body strength endurance.
History and research:
It’s easy to cheat when doing a push-up and challenging to see
how low or high participants go on each push-up, making the
data unreliable. But in January 2022, the U.S. Air Force released
its new physical fitness test standards, which included a 2-minute
hand-release push-up test. The U.S. Air Force takes its fitness
seriously. I don’t mean that they have crushing fitness assessments
that are impossible to pass, but rather that they are serious about
finding the right way to measure and progress their population. In
2021, general CQ Brown Jr. said, “We are moving away from a one-
size-fits-all model.” They view fitness as a tool for health and are
working on creating an inclusive, well-rounded approach to engage
their entire community. It’s working. A recent report by the Rand
Corporation found that less than 1 percent of U.S. airmen and air-
women are at risk of adverse health conditions, and every single
marker in their fitness tests is headed in the right direction. The
hand-release push-up test that they adopted assures that everyone
covers the same distance in each repetition. This is the most valid
upper body strength endurance test with the biggest pool of data
points that I have found. I have made a few minor adjustments
to the women’s scoring because only 20 percent of the air force is
made up of women pilots and officers, so I wanted to broaden the
pool a bit, and I did this by conducting the hand-release push-up
test on over 1,000 healthy active adults.
Pros:
The data is more accurate because participants will have to do a
full push-up, touching the chest to the floor.
Cons:
Like any other test, if form and guidelines are not followed, the
results can be skewed. Fatigue can also lead to poor execution of
the movement.
What to watch for:
Make sure that once you release your hand from the ground and
push your way back up in a way that your body moves as one unit.
Don’t worm your way up.
Protocol:
These are the exact instructions used by the Air Force:
1. Hands flat on ground.
2. Push the body up as a single unit to fully extend elbows.
3. Bend elbows to lower your body down to the ground. The chest
and thighs hit the ground at the same time.
4. Once you are on the ground you must fully extend your arms
from the ground making sure you have a 90-degree angle from
arm to trunk.
5. Return arms to the start position and repeat.
6. Resting can only be done in the up position.
7. You have 2 minutes to complete as many hand-release push-
ups as possible.
8. If you rest on the floor and not in the up position, the test will
be terminated and your score to that point will be recorded.
How to Score:
Scale down if you can’t complete 1 rep or more of a full hand-release push-up.
In which case a bent knee push-up would be just fine. Remember,
part of the goal is to create efficacy around our fitness practice,
and using the Fit Check-up gives you the opportunity to always
come back to where you started to see if you are improving. Yes,
it’s nice to see what fit and healthy standards are, but understand-
ing the importance of making this work for you is more important
than following strict guidelines.
Let me know how many push ups you do.
See you in the gym,
Aaron Leventhal CSCS, ACSM-Cancer Specialist, PN1