Anthropometric and Performance Correlates of Push-up and Sit-up Tests

Abstract

Physical fitness tests are often used to assess muscular strength and endurance. In some instances, such as in the case of injury to a particular body part, an individual may not be able to perform a certain protocol. PURPOSE: Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between the push ups test (PU), sit ups test (SU), and selected anthropometric variables and build a prediction model for each test of muscular performance. METHODS: Sixty three (33 females, and 30 males) apparently healthy adults (age = 22.8 +/− 3.9) volunteered to participate in the study. Each subject completed the following: 60-seconds PU test and 60-seconds SU test. Subjects were also measured for the following anthropometric variables: weight, height, BMI, waist and hip circumferences, abdominal (SFab), subscapular (SFss), and thigh (SFth) skinfold measurements. Sex was also included as an independent variable. RESULTS: The zero-order correlations to PU and SU are shown in the table (p 0.01**; p < 0.05*). The highest correlations were between PU and SU. Weight did not significantly correlate to either SU (r = 0.01) or PU (r = −0.12) and, therefore, was excluded from the table. Stepwise regression revealed that the best predictors of PU were SU as expressed by the following bivariate prediction equation: PU = 6.770 (SU x 0.752) R = 0.71, R2 = 0.50, SEE = 8.7. For SU, the best predictors were PU and SFth. The prediction equation for SU was: SU = 29.636 + (PU x 0.446) + (SFth ×-0.519). R = 0.79, R2 = 0.63, SEE = 7.0.TableCONCLUSIONS: The results of this study show that PU and SU performance were highly interrelated. The regression equations developed by this study may be viable in providing a prediction of one performance score as an alternative assessment option.