Muscular endurance is your ability to perform a high volume of sub-maximal efforts without undue fatigue. This component of muscular fitness is important in sports and many everyday activities. You can improve your muscular endurance by performing high-repetition sets of strength training and body weight exercises with short rests between sets. This training protocol increases your lactic acid tolerance and improves the condition of your muscles. There are a number of tests that you can perform to assess your muscular endurance.
Push-ups
You can use push-ups to test your upper body muscular endurance. To perform a push-up, bend down and place your hands on the floor, shoulder-width apart. Walk your feet back until your legs and hips are extended. keep your abdominal muscles tight, bend your arms and lower your chest to within an inch of the floor. Push back up to the starting position and repeat. There are a number of push-up tests that assess your muscular endurance, and each test uses different norm tables to assess results.
Some tests require you to perform as many repetitions in a given time while others require you to perform as many repetitions as possible. The main consideration when performing any form of push-up test is that each repetition is identical in form so that subsequent tests can be compared to measure improvement.
Sit-ups
There are a number of sit-up tests designed to assess your abdominal muscular endurance. To perform a sit-up, lie on your back with your legs bent and feet flat on the floor. With your hands on your temples, sit up until your elbows touch your knees and then lie back until your shoulders touch the floor. Some sit-up tests permit you to anchor your feet while others do not. One version of the sit-up test requires you to perform as many repetitions as possible in 60 seconds, Your score is then compared to a gender and age adjusted table and your performance ranked accordingly. A 35 year-old male who performs 52 sit-ups in 60 seconds would get a score of 100 which is rated excellent.
Abdominal Curl-up
The American College of Medicine's abdominal curl-up test uses a 40 beats per minute metronome to control your repetition speed. To perform a curl-up, lie on your back with your legs bent and your feet flat on the floor. Place your hands on the floor by your sides with your arms extended and your palms turned down. Lift your shoulders and slide your hands forward 12 cm or 5 inches and then lower back down to the starting position. This constitutes one rep.
Keep in time with the metronome by lifting up for the count of one and lowering for the count of two to produce a pace of 20 repetitions per minute. When you are no longer able to keep up with the 20 repetitions per minute pace, the test is complete.The curl-up targets your abdominal muscles in isolation whereas situps also involve your hip flexor, upper thigh and lower back muscles. The maximum score for the ACSM abdominal curl-up test is 75 repetitions.
Submaximal Bench Press Test
The sub maximal bench press test assesses your upper body endurance and uses a metronome to ensure that your repetition speed remains constant. Set the metronome to 60 beats per minute and take two seconds to lower the bar and then two seconds to raise it. When you can no longer maintain the two up/two down pace, the test is completed. Males should perform this test using 66 percent of their body weight while females should use 50 percent. Because the bench press exercise requires you to hold a loaded barbell over your chest, to minimize your risk of injury, only perform this test with a spotter nearby.
Back Extension Test
The back extension test assesses the endurance of your lower back muscles. To perform this test, lie on your front on an exercise bench or massage couch so that your front hip bones are level with the edge. With your legs held in place by a partner or trainer, cross your arms over your chest and hold your torso parallel to the floor. Maintain this position for as long as you can while your partner records your time. The test is completed when you can no longer keep your torso horizontal. Back expert and author Stuart McGill suggests that all athletes should be able to maintain this position for four minutes, while a good score for general exercisers is two minutes.
References
- "Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning"; National Strength and Conditioning Association; 2008
- "ACSM's Resources for the Personal Trainer"; American College of Sports Medicine; 2009
- "Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance"; Stuart McGill; 2004
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