Comparison of the seated medicine ball throw, upper-body Wingate, and anthropometrics in active-duty air force personnel

Military performance teams may benefit from having an inexpensive, field assessment of upper-body power like the seated medicine ball throw (SMBT), when laboratory-based assessments such as the Wingate anaerobic test (WAnT) are not feasible. The purpose is to further examine the relationship between the SMBT and upper-body WAnT along with common anthropometric variables. Additionally, we explored the inclusion of anthropometric data in examining associations between SMBT performance and upper-body WAnT outcomes. Forty-four (14 female and 30 male) adult military personnel completed the SMBT and upper-body WAnT. Pearson correlations revealed moderate to very large relationships; height related ( r = 0.361–0.588) to all upper-body WAnT metrics (peak power [PP], peak relative power [PP/kg], average power [AP], and average relative power [AP/kg]). Body mass and abdominal circumference related to WAnT PP ( r = 0.581, 0.329) and AP ( r = 0.579, 0.310). Finally, SMBT related to all WAnT metrics ( r = 0.738–0.825, p < 0.001). Partial correlations (for sex) showed lesser relationships with body mass index relating to WAnT PP ( r = 0.355) and AP ( r = 0.325). Regressions resulted in significant models with predictor variables SMBT, body mass, and sex (0 or 1) explaining 75.2% of the shared variance (Adj. R 2 ) for WAnT PP and 70.2% for AP. The results of this study indicate that SMBT performance was moderately to strongly associated with upper-body WAnT outcomes in the sample, suggesting it may be a practical field-based indicator of upper-body power when laboratory testing is unavailable.