You need to be really strong in your lower body
to be able to weight lift many kilos. I think
male have like in a higher weight class, they
are really strong and probably like their body
weight is way higher so they can't jump as high
because they have to move way more than someone
who is lighter. And so this is also shown in
those tests. Hi, Lena. It's my pleasure to have
you on Evidence Strong Show. If you could briefly
introduce yourself. Hi, Alex. I'm Lena. I'm from
Austria and I'm working as a sports scientist
and athletic coach in Soccer Academy in Austria.
And I did my master's degree last year. My master's
degree was about how explosive upper body tests,
like the explosive push -up test and a ballistic
push -up test, have a correlation with the split
performance. in weightlifting. That's awesome.
Okay. So why this study? Why the interest in
this correlation? Because like I'm a CrossFit
coach as well. And I started some weightlifting
for myself just for fun, but I got really interested
in it. And I did some coaching in weightlifting
and also was watching many people in snatch before
or in snatches and yeah, in all the different
weightlifting stuff. And I just talked with some
colleagues. And... Then we came to that idea
that it would be interesting to get a upper body
test, explosive test in weightlifting. Because
like most of the studies look at, for example,
counter movement jumps, squat jumps or front
squat or like different exercises. But there
were not really some upper body tests. So that's
why I came to that conclusion that maybe that's
something interesting to talk about or to look
at. between the test but now you have to decide
what test you'll be testing so how did you go
about that so i looked at some research and i
found like for upper body testing there was like
some all throws or also yeah like for upper body
testing there were some different tests that
were that were already used in researches but
not in weightlifting and also all the tests i
looked at were not really making sense weightlifting
for example a ball throw because you can't really
use the body weight from a person with the weight
for the ball for example so that's why i thought
okay maybe this test is not so good for weightlifters
and then i looked at some research for push -up
tests i also looked up for maybe handstand push
-ups because this would be probably the best
version for a split performance test but it's
not so easy to test because i may or most of
the weightlifters i know are not all of them
but they were probably not so used to instant
push -ups so it's not so easy to test that's
why i came to the conclusion to use a push -up
test and i also looked at some research and it
looked quite good for for testing as well so
there have been some tests with push -up tests
and then i used the i called it the explosive
push -up test and it looks like a counter movement
jump so you have like you start in a static position
you go down in the eccentric phase and then push
up concentric and so it kind of looks like a
counter movement jump just with your hands and
also yeah. Then I used the ballistic push -up
test or I call it the ballistic push -up test
and it was more like a squat jump test for example.
So they started in the bottom position on the
force plate and had to push up and I only measured
the concentric phase in this test. Could we just
pause for a minute? What was the cueing for the
tests? Because these tests are not in the standard
use. So would you say to the athlete, do a push
-up as fast as you can or as strongly as you
can? What was the cueing? The cueing for the
tests was at the start, hold the position. And
then I told them to push as hard as they can
and as explosive as possible. So let's go through
the whole protocol. Did they do it one time,
five times? how how the testing looked like they
did this three times and they also did a counter
movement jump on the force plate because i wanted
to also have a look if this worked in my study
as well because i looked at many different studies
and it said counter movement jump um correlates
with weight lifting performance and it did in
my testing as well so yeah Okay, so you had push
-up tests, explosive push -up tests, content
movement jump. And what did you measure in weightlifting
performance? I measured the one repetition maximum
in split, in jerk performance. So I measured
the one repetition maximum in jerk performance.
So only split jerk, was it from the rock? It
started from the rock, yeah. Okay, so jerk performance
and the correlation with push -up, explosive
push -up and content movement jump. And ballistic
push -up, yeah. Okay, so did you measure anything?
else? I measured a bioimpedance analysis as well
at the start of the testing. And what measurements
did you take from that? I used body fat, I used
muscle weight or muscle percentage, like normal
weight and height and yeah. Okay, now with the
push -up and the counter -movement jump, what
measurements were you taking? You said it was
done on force plates. Yeah, so it was done on
force plate and I used jumping height and I used
the rate of force development. I used maximum
force. I used maximum power. And I used, yeah,
I think I used many or many measurements, but
because I wanted to look at all of them. But
yeah, the most important ones I used was maximum
power, maximum rate of force development, maximum
force, jumping height. Okay. Are we ready for
the participants? Who did you invite to the study?
So I invited to the study weightlifters that
have done weightlifting. for at least two years
and were from Austria and were able to lift 100
% of their body weight in track performance for
male and 75 % for females. How many participants
did you end up with? I ended up with 30 participants.
17 were male and 13 were female. All right. So
what have you found? So I found that there was
a significant correlation between the counter
-movement jump and the split performance in male
and in female for jump height and also for some
of the other parameters I looked at. Also, there
was a correlation for females between the explosive
push -up test and the jerk performance in jumping
height, in rate of force development, as well
as in T -max. For males, it was different. They
didn't have a correlation for the explosive push
-up test. They had a correlation in the ballistic
push -up test. So yeah, I could have, or for
example, like the, yeah, the woman were more
for the explosive push -up test and the male
for the ballistic push -up test, the correlations,
but the females didn't have a correlation for
the. ballistic push -up test for example why
do you think there was a difference yeah i like
i think one point was it was not so easy for
the female athletes to do the ballistic push
-up test because Like you had to be able to hold
57 % of your body weight and like in this static
position and then push this away. And so you
had to hold it for like two or three seconds
and then push away. And it was not really easy
for the female athletes. I think that was why
maybe the data wasn't like their best. And also,
yeah. You had to be really strong to be able
to do that test. And for males, it was way more,
or it was easier because they were all able to
do the test. And they also performed quite good
in the test. I think one point why it was hard
because the testing was not perfect and not so
easy and also the second thing is I think maybe
yeah there would need to be more or we would
have to test more in why maybe the concentric
eccentric part where like testing for male is
better with the explosive push -up test but I
assume are able to lift more weight and also
hold more weight in different positions and the
females weren't and also like having 75 % from
your body weight and pushing it away in like
a static position is really hard so the explosive
push -up test was tested good in flight jumping
height for females and the ballistic push -up
test was significant for males and I would say
maybe One point why for males the ballistic push
-up test was more reliable or had a higher correlation,
a significant correlation, because their rate
of force development is maybe correlating better
with their jerk performance. And also the things
I said before for testing for the females with
the ballistic push -up test was really hard.
So I think this is also one point why it didn't
really work. hoped it would and for me that the
the results show that is it's important to have
like upper body power tests also use upper body
power training for weightlifters because it has
an impact not only your legs so also your upper
body and it would be maybe a good test to use
in performance or in performance testing so kind
of the movement jump is often used but like the
explosive push -up test or ballistic push -up
test you can also use them in like smaller facilities
in like use a video camera and do the testing
so you don't need a force plate so this is like
a easy test for everyone kind of yeah and like
what A different power test that is often used
for upper body is the ballistic bench press.
And for this, you need, what is it called in
English? A smith machine. You need a smith machine
for ballistic bench press. And so this is hard
for testing and the push -up variation would
be easier, for example. Also, if you want to
get younger kids to start with weightlifting,
you could use those tests and also have a look
if they're good. those and also like start with
push -up variations in the beginning and then
and also use them in their weightlifting training
for example i have an additional question so
let's say i'm a coach and i'm thinking okay i
will try to use this test how fatiguing the push
-up testing is are the athletes able to do that
can i use it at the beginning of the session
to check readiness is it the test i use at the
at the end of the block to check the how the
power is developing and how explosive they are
that like how would you apply this test so i
wouldn't really i don't know if for readiness
i can't really say if it's good for this or for
testing readiness um in the start of the session
or to test fatigue like for the counter movement
jump it is used for testing if athletes is tired
like how his load is over weeks for example but
I'm not sure for the push -up test there have
to have or there are some like new studies to
do And for for like testing in after a block
session, I will probably use it because then
I see if he's getting more explosive in the test.
And but maybe you have to do it a couple of times
for to get used to the test and practice it regularly
before you. used or implemented in a testing
protocol so that's I all my athletes had to do
the tests a couple of times before the or had
to do the movement a couple of times before they
were allowed to test it and I could see like
the third rep like maximum explosive rep was
not as good as the second one, for example, because
they got really tired, even if after three minutes
of a break in between. So it is really exhausting
to do. And also, yeah, adapt the strength training
for female and male if they, yeah, in their lifting,
if maybe they are good in those tests. If someone
is good in the explosive push -up test, they
are probably super explosive in their upper body.
But maybe if they can't get better in the split
jerk or push -jerk performance, the problem is
not in the upper body. It's maybe in the counter
movement or using counter movement jump, for
example, and in the triple extension or in getting
more force on the ground or whatever, but not
in the upper body. That's maybe a tool how you
can use it. That's a great point. So you're suggesting
that testing counter movement jump. and explosive
push -up or ballistic push -up gives you this
difference between upper body explosive power
and all abilities and lower body. And then you
can see, okay, if I'm trying to influence how
powerful this athlete is, should I focus more
on upper or lower body? That's very interesting.
And one interesting part that I also thought
about was like, there is a lot of difference
between pushing the weight horizontal or vertical.
So people who are athletes, who were used to
like doing some horizontal lifting I think for
them the test is good but if they have never
or not do horizontal lifts often then maybe it's
not so good to test that test and say okay this
has an impact because they need to be able to
also hold their core in that position. And it's
different to hold the core in the horizontal
movement to the vertical movement. There's a
difference between holding the weight in the
center of your mass than in the push -up where
it's further away. The most weight you use or
you push is more in front of you than... in the
middle all right just different placement of
the center of mass and then it will impact how
the athlete raises and then produces the power
too yeah okay let's bring it all together what
would be three points you want the coaches to
know from your study so three points that i want
the coaches to know from my studies use it or
try to use it and maybe it works for your athletes
for testing also if you work with younger athletes
you can use it for identification, if they have
a talent in upper body explosiveness, for example.
Yeah, I had a lot of fun doing that study and
I'm kind of looking forward to some new stuff
or trying out some new tests. Okay, two short
questions to finish. The first one is, what is
your favorite lift? So my favorite lift is the
snatch. why is that yeah because when you have
a good day it works really good and if you have
a bad day it doesn't and yeah i like that because
it always reflects my mood kind of because when
i have a good day it works and if i don't then
i'm like okay if snatch is not even working the
day is not good to be but yeah that's awesome
okay where people can find if they want to see
what you're up to or maybe ask a question or
contact you where should they go if they want
to ask a question they can either find me on
instagram at lina dana coach or they can find
me on linkedin also as lina dana awesome thank
you so much it was a pleasure thanks a lot