The Disadvantages of Pushup Tests

Despite the nearly unlimited number of exercises available, pushups have become a common choice for assessing physical fitness. Pushup tests may be used to distinguish qualified candidates from less qualified ones, or may be imposed as a requirement for individuals looking to join a team. The pushup test is simple: an observer keeps count as the athlete performs as many pushups in a row as possible. Incomplete pushups or those performed with improper form are not counted toward the total. While pushup tests may have benefits, like being easy to administer, these tests are not perfect.

  1. Limited Muscle Assessment

    • While a pushup test does help provide some insight into one's physical fitness, the assessment is limited to upper-body strength. The pushup primarily works your chest, shoulders and triceps, but those are just a few of the muscles that make up your upper body. Additionally, the pushup test does not provide any basis for evaluating lower-body strength. Thus, the pushup test does little to assess the overall picture of a participant's fitness level.

    Limited Attribute Assessment

    • The pushup test analyzes just one attribute: muscular endurance. Because the test simply measures the amount of times a person can lift a specific weight, a pushup test doesn't help assess muscular strength. Understanding how much resistance one can move is important in many contexts. For example, a lineman in football must be able to move very heavy objects.

    No Weight Consideration

    • The pushup test also fails to provide a complete picture of one's physical fitness because it does not take the participant's weight into consideration. Ratings for pushup performance are only broken up by gender and age. However, because the resistance used in the test is body weight, the participant's weight can influence the difficulty of the test. Someone with a very high strength-to-weight ratio may perform fewer repetitions than a person with an average strength-to-weight ratio if the first person is much heavier.

    Injury Risk

    • Because success in the pushup test depends on cranking out as many repetitions as possible, the risk of injury is significant. One hoping to perform well may eschew proper form in a hurried attempt to reach a higher number. In addition, an individual may feel compelled to push himself beyond normal limits to achieve a high score. Such overexertion can also increase injury risk, particularly if the person doesn't often perform high numbers of pushups.