Canadian Strength Testing Protocol

Fri, Aug  10, 2012 - By Mike Muha

There are a couple different tests out there to test fitness. The first is the Medals Test (you can read about it here: Spring Fitness Assessment and Standardized Fitness Test for Cross Country Skiers. A second is a variation used by Cross Country Canada. NENSA recently used this variation for a National J2 Camp. This test is something you can do as well. You just need a friend and an access to a gym or par course.

Canadian Strength Testing Protocol

In order:

1. 1 minute: Pull-ups: pronation grip (back of hands facing you); grip wider than shoulder width to allow 900 angle when upper arms are parallel to the ground; legs bent at knee level is allowed but no swinging with the legs allowed during pull-ups; chin must be raised above the bar with each pull-up to score one rep.
2. 1 minute: Rest
3. 1 minute: Sit ups: knees bent at 900 and feet anchored; arms crossed in front with hands holding opposite shoulder; elbows must touch knees no further down than 10cm from top of knee to score one rep. ; lower tip of shoulder blades need to touch ground between each rep.
4. 1 minute: Rest
5. 1 minute: Push-ups: stand on hands just outside shoulder width; the upper arm must be parallel to the floor at the lowest point and full extension at the highest point; whole body must remain fairly straight through the test.
6. 1 minute: Rest
7. 1 minute: Box jumps: feet together top of box at 16 inches (40 cm) off the ground; more than half of feet length must land on the top of the box so there is some pressure applied on the heels.
8. 1 minute: Rest
9. 1 minute: Dips: grip and arms motion as with push-ups; arms and feet elevated off the floor.

I could not find it on the Cross Country Canada website, but you can download a copy of the official Canadian Strength Testing Protocol from the NENSA site. The guide has pictures so you can visualize the exercises plus standards per exercise per age group (i.e., expectation on how many reps an athlete at a particular should be able to complete).

Here are the August 5 results from the National J2 Camp Strength Test. Hey, master skiers: How many of these can YOU do? (I know how many I can do, and it's not pretty...)