Differences and Relationships Between Push-up and Sit-up Variations Among Male Law Enforcement Cadets

Abstract

Abstract Lopes dos Santos, M, Thompson, M, Dinyer-McNeely, T, Torrence, T, Lockie, RG, Orr, RM, and Dawes, JJ. Differences and relationships between push-up and sit-up variations among male law enforcement cadets. J Strength Cond Res 37(9): 1865–1869, 2023—The purpose of this study was to explore variation-dependent differences in push-up and sit-up tests, as well as to identify the relationships between push-up and sit-up variations commonly performed among tactical personnel. Data from 41 (age = 21.1 ± 1.8 years, body mass = 89.5 ± 15.5 kg) male police cadets from one US-based training academy who performed the standard push-up (PUStandard), hand-release push-up (PUHand-release), standard sit-up (SUStandard), and hands behind the head sit-up (SUBehindHead) were examined. The maximum number of repetitions completed for each exercise was used for analyses with paired-samples t tests used to identify significant differences between outcome measures and effect sizes (ES) to determine change in magnitude. A significant difference, with a large ES, was found in the number of repetitions completed between the push-up variations (p < 0.001, ES = 0.75) and sit-up variations (p < 0.001, ES = 1.02). Performance in PUStandard was only able to explain 39% of the variation in PUHand-release (r = 0.62, r 2 = 0.39, p < 0.001), and performance in the SUStandard was only able to explain 29% of the variation in SUBehindHead (r = 0.54, r 2 = 0.29, p < 0.001). The current study suggests differences in performance capabilities may be dependent on the push-up and sit-up variations chosen for testing. Although it is still unclear whether one variation would be a better predictor of police work performance, agencies must give special attention to the overall construct validity of fitness tests for entry and retention of law enforcement officers.