Discover The Universal Fitness Test
Test How to Fit You Are
Take the Universal Fitness Test and find out how strong you are.
It involves four key measures of strength.
It’s simple: it doesn’t take long, and if you’ve got back pain, it will explain why you’ve got it. If you fail the strength test, the risk of back pain is high. The best predictor of risk is press-ups.
1. Abdominal Strength
Situps – feet held – maximum consecutive number until exhaustion – feet held, fingers clasped behind the ears, coming up so elbows touch the knees, shoulders (not head) hitting the ground.
2. Upper Body Strength
Press-ups – maximum consecutive number until exhaustion – men on toes, women on knees.
3. Leg Strength
Squat – the number of times you can squat down so your backside is below your knees and stand up (straight) until exhaustion. Start standing up. Use a 5 cm heel raise.
4. Hand, arm and shoulder strength
How many seconds can you hang from a bar before letting go?
Scoring
To achieve a particular standard you need to complete the required number of repetitions as listed below. Your award depends on the lowest score you receive for any one of the items. eg, if your lowest score was, say 10 situps, your final score is the Amber Award.
Anyone in reasonable shape – someone with a strength training program – can achieve the gold award. Until you’re 75, age shouldn’t have much to do with it. You’ll have longer to train!
In the meantime, stay tuned, highly tuned, and if you have lower back pain and spend time each day doing your stretches, do the strength exercises three times a week.
Regards and best wishes
John Miller
If I can help you with more information, please feel free to contact me at this link https://www.globalbackcare.com/contact-us/
Will improving my strength relieve my back pain.
There's a good chance that it will. If your skeleton is not well supported by strong muscles your leaving yourself wide open to joint and muscle pain.
Are there some strength tests I can do to determine whether my back pain is caused by a lack of strength?
Yes there are. The four strength tests from the Universal Fitness Test - situps, pressups, squats and arm hang - will provide you with a very useful indication whether your skeleton is well supported by your musculature.
If there was one strength exercises that I can do at home to relieve back pain?
The short answer is pressups.; they strengthen muscles from your feet up[ to your neck, front, back and sides. The long answer is that just one exercises isn't enough. As a minimum you need situps, pressups and free squats. Plus you need a good strength training program at the gym.
