11.3 How to Measure Muscular Strength and Endurance

Before an individual sets a goal or plan around muscular strength and endurance, it is helpful to establish a baseline for muscular fitness. Muscular strength is the force that a muscle can produce with a single maximum effort, so tests of weight capacity can be used to measure muscular strength. Muscular endurance can be measured by how long an individual can repeat a muscle contraction multiple times before reaching fatigue or how long a person can sustain a level of muscle contraction (Swain et al., 2014). Multiple measures of muscular strength and endurance exist, depending on the assessor and the individual’s goals. Some include:

• Push-up test to assess the strength and endurance of chest, bicep, and tricep muscles;
• Partial curl-up test—sometimes referred to as crunches—to assess the strength and endurance of the abdominal muscles with dumbbells;
• Vertical jump test to assess the strength of leg muscles by how high a person can jump; and
• Forearm plank test to assess the strength and endurance of the core.

An exercise or sports medicine professional can help measure both muscular strength and endurance through a fitness assessment. Assessing muscular strength and endurance can involve free weights, weight machines, resistance bands, body weight exercises, or special equipment. While individuals can monitor or measure changes in strength and endurance by noting changes in abilities around weight, sustained contractions, or repetitions, care should be taken to not increase intensity of either too quickly. Guidelines recommend gradual increases in weight or repetitions by increments of around 5% and to prioritize rest between training sessions; muscle groups need about 48 hours to recover before working to fatigue again (Swain et al., 2014).