Metabolic Warriors... Test your push up strength

As a Metabolic Warrior, you know that we don't encourage comparing yourself to your workout buddy or the person doing push ups next to you.  You are all unique individuals who have come into the training with different fitness backgrounds and we want you to see the strength and fitness that YOU have gained and see how far YOU have come since you started training.  Even so, we often get questions such as, "How do I compare to the typical 30, or 50, or 70 year old person?"

We know that our Warriors rock and can keep pace with the best of the best.  We see your progress and your strength each time you come to the trainings but we wanted to share something that should make you feel good about yourselves.  There are standards for testing different types of fitness so that you can see where you stand in comparison to others of the same gender and age.  One of those tests is a maximum push up test.  The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) is one of the most widely recognized and accepted standards in the fitness industry so we will use their norms for comparison.

To perform the test you will do the maximum number of push ups you can do to fatigue.  The push ups must be performed in a continuous manner without resting.  When you need to stop, the test is over.  Men will perform standard push ups on hands and toes while women may opt for a modified push up on hands and knees.  Yes, WE KNOW that many of our women Warriors can do numerous standard push ups so please do a full push up if you prefer.  We are simply stating the test as designed for comparisons to the norms. 

The tables below show the percentiles and ratings for men and women in 10-year age brackets.  The last bracket is 60+ and I think we should petition ACSM to come visit a SMART Fitness training and acknowledge that we not only have 60-somethings that can do push ups off their scale but we have Warriors in their 70s who can pile up the push ups.

The rankings are coded S, E, G, F, and P for Superior, Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor. Have some twisted Warrior fun and see where you fall on the chart.