Fitness Friday: 2 Minute Press Up Test

It’s Fitness Friday! I’m about to head up North for a weekend away in Croatia, so it’s time for a quick blast of fitness before I head to the beach and overindulge on wine! Today I’ve got a fun press up test for you all to try, thanks to the The Official British Army Fitness Guide – although you may not agree that it’s fun at all!

I picked up the The Official British Army Fitness Guide a few months ago, when I took part in a two hour military circuits for the amazing charity Combat Stress. The session was full of bear crawls, running, squats, sit ups - and, of course, press ups. We were kindly given a copy of this book each in return for our effort and donations.

It's a great little guide, full of both strength and cardio training. It includes a variety of programmes, some for 4 weeks and some for 12 weeks, which will improve your fitness and strength, whatever your initial level of fitness. I started the four week basic running programme this week, in preparation for my Race for Life 5k which I seriously need to start training for, and I have found the first week to be challenging but encouraging.

 

I was also excited to try the 'press up test.' I love these kind of tests; they are great to do once a month to track your progression in a fitness-focused way. If you are getting a bit too focused on those scales, it's a nice way to break up your routine. As my full press ups are definitely not up to army standards, I tried the test twice - once attempting full press ups, with limited range, and once on my knees with the full range. 

 

On knees (full range) = 52

Full press up (limited range) = 39

 

I'm fairly pleased with these results; my full press-ups fell under the 'very good' category for my age range and the reduced press-ups fell under the 'excellent' category. I wanted to try it twice because I know that my full press-ups are not the correct form and I acknowledge that many of my 39 press-ups wouldn't have been counted by the Army! However, it gives me something to work on and I intend to repeat this test once a month to track my progress.

 

Have you tried the two minute press up test? I'd love to hear what you got in the comments!