Which of the activities below would best test muscular strength in the chest?

Strength and flexibility exercises will help you increase muscle strength, maintain bone density, improve balance and reduce joint pain.

What are strength exercises?

A strength exercise is any activity that makes your muscles work harder than usual.

This increases your muscles' strength, size, power and endurance.

The activities involve using your body weight or working against a resistance.

You should try to do 2 sessions or more of muscle strengthening exercises a week.

Examples of muscle-strengthening activities include:

  • lifting weights
  • working with resistance bands
  • heavy gardening, such as digging and shovelling
  • climbing stairs
  • hill walking
  • cycling
  • dance
  • push-ups, sit-ups and squats
  • yoga

What exercises are good for preventing falls?

Exercises that improve leg strength, balance and co-ordination can help people maintain and improve their muscle strength and avoid falls as they get older.

Examples of leg-strengthening exercises include:

  • tai chi
  • yoga
  • dance
  • walking up stairs
  • hiking
  • lifting weights

How can I tell if I'm doing enough?

For an activity to be muscle strengthening, it needs to work your muscles to the point where you may need a short rest before continuing.

For example, if you're lifting weights, you'd have to put the weight down after doing a number of lifts before carrying on.

What are flexibility exercises?

Flexibility exercises are activities that improve the ability of a joint to maintain the movement necessary for carrying out daily tasks and physical activity.

Examples of flexibility activities include:

  • stretching
  • yoga
  • tai chi
  • pilates

What are the benefits of strength and flexibility activities?

Muscle-strengthening activities help maintain the ability to perform everyday tasks and slow down the rate of bone and muscle loss associated with ageing. 

Such exercises can also help reduce your chances of falling.

Health professionals believe that improving your flexibility can improve your posture, reduce aches and pains, and lower your risk of injury.

Good flexibility can also help you to continue carrying out everyday tasks.

How often should I do strength and flexibility exercises?

It's a good idea to do muscle-strengthening activities that work all the major muscle groups (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms) on 2 or more days a week.

No specific amount of time is recommended, but a typical training session could take less than 20 minutes.

Exercises should be performed to the point at which it would be difficult to do another repetition without help.

A repetition is 1 complete movement of an activity, like lifting a weight or doing 1 push-up or 1 sit-up.

Try to do 8 to 12 repetitions for each activity, which counts as 1 set.

Try to do at least 2 sets of muscle-strengthening activities, but to gain even more benefits, do 3 sets.

Remember to start gradually and build up over a period of weeks.

There are no specific recommendations for how much time you should spend on flexibility exercises.

How much aerobic exercise should I do?

For general health, try to do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity a week, as well as muscle-strengthening activities on 2 days a week.

But if you're doing vigorous-intensity aerobic activity, you should be able to get all your week's aerobic and muscle-strengthening requirements from 75 minutes of activity.

Do strength exercises count towards my 150 minutes?

No, time spent doing strength exercises does not count towards moderate aerobic activities.

Aerobic activities like walking or cycling do count towards your 150-minute weekly target.

But don't some aerobic exercises include an element of strength?

Yes, some aerobic exercises, if performed at a vigorous intensity, will also strengthen your muscles.

Examples include:

  • circuit training
  • dancing
  • martial arts
  • football
  • hockey
  • rugby

Muscular strength and endurance are two important parts of your body’s ability to move, lift things and do day-to-day activities. Muscular strength is the amount of force you can put out or the amount of weight you can lift. Muscular endurance is how many times you can move that weight without getting exhausted (very tired).

Benefits of Muscular Strength and Endurance

Muscular strength and endurance are important for many reasons:

  • Increase your ability to do activities like opening doors, lifting boxes or chopping wood without getting tired.
  • Reduce the risk of injury.
  • Help you keep a healthy body weight.
  • Lead to healthier, stronger muscles and bones.
  • Improve confidence and how you feel about yourself.
  • Give you a sense of accomplishment.
  • Allow you to add new and different activities to your exercise program.

Improving Muscular Strength and Endurance

There are many ways to improve muscular strength and endurance. A gym or fitness centre is a good place to go if you’re interested in doing resistance training (also called strength training, weight training or weight lifting). This involves working a muscle or group of muscles against resistance to increase strength and power.

Resistance training can include using:

  • Equipment like medicine balls or weight machines
  • Resistance tubes or bands during exercises
  • Your own body as a weight, as you would do during push-ups or sit-ups

Of course, you don’t have to go to a gym or buy exercise equipment to improve muscular strength and endurance. Doing normal daily activities like lifting groceries or walking up and down stairs can also help. You can also do many exercises at home that don’t need equipment, such as push-ups and sit-ups. All you have to do is challenge your muscles to work harder or longer than they usually do.

Remember, if you’re going to do strengthening exercises that involve lifting, it’s important to use the correct techniques.

Last Reviewed: November, 2016


© 2016 Province of British Columbia. All rights reserved. May be reproduced in its entirety provided the source is acknowledged. This information is not meant to replace advice from your medical doctor or individual counselling with a health professional. It is intended for educational and informational purposes only.

What fitness test is used to determine the muscle strength of your chest?

The pushup test is one of the best ways to assess upper-body endurance, explains Bell, especially in the muscles of the chest and shoulders. To do the pushup test, you'll need a stopwatch or a timer on your phone, and a ball, like a tennis ball. You may also want an exercise mat.

Which of the following exercises would best test the muscular strength?

The most widely used exercises for upper and lower body muscular strength testing are the bench press and leg press, respectively. Other dynamic strength tests include the arm curl, latissimus dorsi pull down, knee extension and knee curl.

What exercises build muscular endurance in the chest?

Great chest exercises include: push-ups, dumbbell chest press, barbell chest press and variations in angles of working your chest such as incline and decline chest press.

What are 5 examples of muscular strength activities?

Examples of muscle-strengthening activities include:.
lifting weights..
working with resistance bands..
heavy gardening, such as digging and shovelling..
climbing stairs..
hill walking..
cycling..
dance..
push-ups, sit-ups and squats..