NHANES National Youth Fitness Survey

The Modified Pull-up develops the muscles of the upper body and arms. Strong muscles in the upper body are important in activities of daily living, maintaining functional health and promoting good posture. The modified pull-up is one of the exercises in the FitnessGram®.

Participants aged 5-15 years who do not meet any of the exclusion criteria, were eligible for this component. Participants were excluded from this component if they had musculoskeletal or neurological problems involving the arms or shoulders.

Equipment required for test:

• Modified pull-up bar – a specially constructed horizontal bar that can be positioned at a height that allows the participant to clasp the bar with an overhand grasp when lying on his/her back on a flat surface, such as an exercise mat.

Trained examiners explained the modified pull-up exercise to the participants and showed them a video of the exercise before beginning the test.

Participants were asked to lie on his/her back on the exercise mat with his/her shoulders directly under a horizontal bar that was set about 1-2 inches above the participant’s outstretched arms. A nylon strap hung 8 inches down from the center of the horizontal bar. The participant was asked to clasp the horizontal bar with an overhand grasp, palms facing away from the body. When the participant was ready, the examiner requested that the participant raise his/her body from the “down” position by flexing his/her arms until his/her chest touched the nylon strap. After touching the strap the participant lowered his/her body back to the “down” position. Throughout this exercise the participant had to maintain a straight body with his/her buttocks off the mat and only his/her heels touching the mat. This procedure should be repeated as many times as possible. The test was stopped when the participant paused for two or more seconds, could no longer maintain the correct position, or they requested the test be stopped. Scores were based on the number of pull-ups completed correctly.

Refer to the procedures manual for a detailed description of the modified pull-up testing procedure (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nnyfs/manuals.htm).

Examiners were trained in administering this component prior to the start of the NHANES National Youth Fitness Survey, and quality control checks were made during field visits by NHANES and survey operations staff.

Edits were made where necessary to ensure the completeness, consistency, and analytic usefulness of the data.

Component status code: A final modified pull-up status code (MPULLSTS) provides analysts with a quick method of identifying survey participants with complete or partial pull-up measurement data or measurements that were not done.

Comment Codes: Comment codes (MPULLCMT) were added by the examiners, during data collection, to document problems or situations that arose during the modified pull-up measurement test. These comments indicate reasons why a participant may not have completed the modified pull-up test. Analysts should review the comment code information for the modified pull-up prior to data analysis.

Sample Weights: The NNYFS examination sample weights should be used to analyze the modified pull-up data. Please refer to the NNYFS Analytic Guidelines for details on the use of sample weights and other analytic issues.