We have revised the Dojo’s push-up and sit-up standards, effective immediately. The new standards are based on data sets derived from large-population studies measuring typical and potential performance based on age and gender. For all students, we start at the white-belt level requiring a number of repetitions which most people your age and gender can perform. As your belt level rises, you’ll be required to surpass more and more of your peers in the general population. Ultimately, at Black Belt your score is at least in the top ten percent for your reference group.

An important difference from before is that we have broken the standards down into smaller age groups, and they are separated by gender. Both of these changes are reflections of actual differences in measured performance in the population at large, and they insure that the degree of difficulty remains constant for different ages and genders. For example, at age 14 a girl must do 26 push-ups for Black Belt, while a boy must do 46. Both of these scores represent a national 90th percentile score for 14-year-old girls and boys respectively, and are therefore equally difficult to attain.

Open the Fitness Chart below to find your required numbers for your rank, age, and gender. We have also refined the standards for performing and measuring your push-ups and sit-ups, and that is detailed on the Performing and Measuring document. In general, the absolute number of repetitions you are required to do has dropped, but be aware that we are going to strictly enforce the performance standards. This is particularly important in push-ups, where we must see three things for every repetition: 1. Body straight and moving as a unit; 2. Arms bend until the upper arm is PARALLEL to the floor; and 3. Straightening the arm fully.
Fitness Chart.pdf
Performing and Measuring.pdf