Longevity Test #3- Air Force Hand Release Push Up
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-release 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% of U.S. airmen and airwomen 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% 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 one thousand 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:
Hands flat on ground.
Push the body up as a single unit to fully extend elbows.
Bend elbows to lower your body down to the ground. The chest and thighs hit the ground at the same time.
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.
Return arms to the start position and repeat.
Resting can only be done in the up position.
You have 2 minutes to complete as many hand-release push-ups as possible.
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.
See below for your score!
See you in the gym,
Aaron Leventhal
CSCS, PN1