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Mid Thigh Pull Utility: Am I Strong Enough for XYZ?


Strength matters. It matters for a lot of reasons. As Mark Rippetoe once said, “Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general.” Now this may be a bit of an oversimplification, the point he is making rings true. If you want to be a better athlete, you need to be stronger. If you want to reduce your risk of falling in your elder years, you need to be stronger. If you want to remain independent throughout your life, you need to be stronger. If you want to run and cycle faster, you need to be stronger. If you want to reduce your risk of injury while doing anything physical, you need to be stronger. There is more research evidence than could ever be reviewed in a blog post demonstrating the protective effect of strength and the performance improving impact of strength. Strength matters. But how do you know whether you’re strong?


Common measures of strength involve familiarity with the testing methodology. Have you ever done a barbell deadlift? If the answer is no, then your ratio of deadlift to body weight is probably not a great way to measure your strength. If only there were some sort of standardized maximal strength assessment that was quick and easy to learn, had properties of high reproducibility and reliability, had been used to generate normative data in variable populations, and had been studied in correlation with performance variables such as sprint speed and vertical jump height. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce the isometric mid thigh pull!


The isometric mid thigh pull (IMTP) is an assessment of total body strength that has been well studied in the research for its ease of implementation and generalizability to multiple measures of sport performance without the demands of instruction time and training to familiarize with testing procedures to generate accurate data. The IMTP has been used to generate normative data in populations ranging from healthy young untrained adults to recreational golfers to elite male and female weightlifters and national track cyclists. Regardless of what your chosen activity, there is probably a research study that has used the IMTP to determine how strong the average person doing that activity is! 


As a general rule, if you are not generating at least 2x your body weight with an IMTP test, you need to be prioritizing strength improvements. Unsure of how strong you are or where to begin a strength program safely? Book an appointment with one of the expert clinicians at RISE for an evaluation and development of a customized program to address your specific needs!



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