Make Tests and Break Tests of Elbow Flexor Muscle Strength

The purposes of this investigation were 1) to compare the forces produced by the elbow flexor muscles during make tests and break tests and 2) to determine the reliability of each of the test procedures. I used a hand-held dynamometer to perform two make tests and two break tests on 27 young women. The forces produced by the elbow flexor muscles during break tests were significantly larger than (p less than .001), albeit correlated with (r greater than .80), the forces produced during make tests. Each testing procedure was reliable (r = .909 for make tests; r = .922 for break tests). On the basis of reliability, one type of testing cannot be considered clearly superior to the other.