YMCA Bench Press Assessment: Muscular Endurance

This next test is one that measures the upper body muscular endurance of your client.

YMCA Bench Press Test

Purpose: To assess the muscular endurance of the upper body, but specifically the triceps, anterior deltoid, and pectoralis major muscles.

This one is relatively simple to administer, if you have a rack, a bench, a metronome, and finally a client with coordination.

➡️ Sometimes coordination makes this one difficult to implement, and if that is an issue, the pushup test would be a good alternative.

Procedures:

· Set metronome to 60 bpm (so participant will complete 30 lifts per minute)

  Men will use 80 lb barbell, 

Women will use 35 lb barbell

· Scoring is based on number of repetitions to fatigue

STOP criteria: 

• Client begins to strain forcibly or demonstrates severe discomfort

• Fails to maintain proper technique over 2 consecutive reps

• An isolated improper rep gets a warning; 2 consecutively poor reps gets test termination

• If the client can no longer maintain correct cadence

• Adhere strictly to the proper stop criteria & count correctly

Score is # performed consecutively (no time limit) without rest

Reference:

Ferguson, B. (2014). ACSM’s guidelines for exercise testing and prescription 9th Ed. 2014. The Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association, 58(3), 328.