Three Use Cases Behind Strength Assessments Going Mainstream
Have you tried a strength assessment yet?
Strength assessments first gained traction in professional sports as part of athletes’ rehabilitation and pre-season fitness testing.
But recently, it has gone mainstream.
For example, Singapore’s Ministry of Health is running a pilot among general practitioners to incorporate strength assessments into regular health screening.
Here is a quick breakdown of the three use cases for strength assessments that are gaining popularity.
1. Eliminate Ineffective Strength Training
Strength assessments help you understand which exercises to do in multiple ways.
1.1 Identify the Main Body Parts to Train
More than a thousand strength assessments are possible, using, for example, VALD’s range of equipment.
These assessments range from nuanced tests like scapular retraction strength to harder-to-reach hip adduction strength tests and high-speed ones like those using timing gates.
By testing various body parts and comparing them to population normative data, you can determine which areas of your body to prioritise during training.
This helps you get strength results in a shorter amount of time.
There are also sports-based baselines, which indicate how much power various body parts should be able to exert to play the sport sustainably.
For example, there are now strength baselines for running fast (i.e. sprints and sprint-intensive sports like soccer) and for endurance running.
These baselines help you continue to train injury-free.
1.2 Identify Which Strength Facet Needs Training
Strength expressions can be categorised into five largely independent domains:
Heavy Strength
Fast Strength
Isometric Strength
Explosive Strength
Reactive Strength
Improving one domain does not necessarily improve another. And you need all of them for optimal function.
However, traditional strength assessments like the one-rep-max tests cannot help identify which of these you should work on.
Case in point: the video below shows the countermovement jump test, one of the most popular modern strength assessments.
The illustration reflects the various test phases and the equipment used - force decks (the rectangular platform on which the human figure stands).
Sensors under the plate enable force detection and statistics like jump height, time to take off, peak force, asymmetry, etc.
The countermovement jump measures explosive strength.
But if you do two repetitions of the countermovement jump back to back, i.e. a rebound jump, it becomes a reactive strength assessment.
More interestingly, reactive strength shares a 10–35% variance with explosive strength, stressing the importance of prioritising the right strength type and implementing the right exercises.
1.3 Enable Time-Efficient, Location-Agnostic Strength Training
Another research development that sprouted off from such strength assessments is modern isometric training, partly because some tests are isometric (i.e. exertion without movement).
A popular example is the isometric mid-thigh pull test.
It has been found that isometric training has unique benefits, including:
Safety (since less technique is required)
Less recovery time needed
Great for improving tendon stiffness
Most effective for blood pressure improvement
Hence, practitioners like Danny Lum, PhD, the head of strength and conditioning at Singapore Sports Institute, have incorporated isometrics into all his athletes routine.
Particularly, the combination of isometric and plyometric contrast sets have proved to be a more efficient and effective way of strength training than just typical dynamic strength training alone.
Companies like ZeroRM have also hence developed isometric solutions that enable people to do maximum strength training anywhere, anytime.
Such benefits translates to further reduction in ineffective strength training.
2. Removes Guesswork from Physiotherapy
Rehabilitation from musculoskeletal injuries regularly includes strength training and mobility training.
However, without strength assessments, it is hard to be sure on a week-to-week basis if:
Strength exercises prescribed led to strength gains
Strength exercises led to an improvement in the injury
The patient is ready to advance to the next strength exercise progression
The patient has regained pre-injury strength
The patient has reached the baseline strength required for his/her daily activities or sport
With strength assessments, it is possible to check for the five aforementioned points, leading to a more efficient and effective rehabilitation.
Typically, the increased efficiency and effectiveness would also translate to lesser overall pain duration and reduced healthcare spending.
3. Provide Actionable Health Screening Follow Up
Health screening, alongside the transition to medicine 3.0 and rising popularity of longevity medicine, is moving towards preventive health.
Strength assessments are helpful because they can quantify strength, power, balance, and flexibility.
All these metrics are highly correlated to various diseases and conditions.
For example, a recent paper, ‘Muscle Power Versus Strength as a Predictor of Mortality in Middle-Aged and Older Men and Women’ stated that:
The lowest muscle power group had >6x higher mortality risk than the highest group
For strength, the correlation is only 1.6-1.7x
Modern strength assessments beyond the traditional one-rep maximum tests enables you to understand not just your maximum strength output, but also the more critical metric, your maximum power output.
Some strength assessments also come with normative data specific to populations, making them increasingly useful for better predictions on mobility decline and chronic conditions.
On the whole, strength assessments are useful for those who wants to live a long healthy life.
Conclusion
All in all, strength assessments are useful to help you:
Improve strength in lesser time
Improve functional performance more effectively
Do training with less equipment
Remove guesswork from your rehabilitation process
Keep you injury-free
Track your age-related health decline
Etc.
If you are interested in a strength assessment for yourself, please enquire through our waitlist/interest form.
References
Araújo, C. G. S., Kunutsor, S. K., Eijsvogels, T. M. H., Myers, J., Laukkanen, J. A., Hamar, D., Niebauer, J., Bhattacharjee, A., de Souza e Silva, C. G., Franca, J. F., & Castro, C. L. B. (2025). Muscle Power Versus Strength as a Predictor of Mortality in Middle-Aged and Older Men and Women. Mayo Clinic Proceedings. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2025.02.015
Beattie, K., Carson, B. P., Lyons, M., & Kenny, I. C. (2016). The relationship between maximal strength and reactive strength. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 12(4), 548–553. https://doi.org/10.1123/ijspp.2016-0216
Understanding the countermovement jump. (2024, March 12). https://valdperformance.com/news/understanding-the-countermovement-jump
Optimizing Endurance Running Performance and Rehabilitation: A Q&A with Paul Wilson. (2025, April 8). https://valdhealth.com/news/optimizing-endurance-running-performance-and-rehabilitation-a-q-and-a-with
Lum, D., Joseph, R., Ong, K. Y., Tang, J. M., & Suchomel, T. J. (2022). Comparing the Effects of Long-Term vs. Periodic Inclusion of Isometric Strength Training on Strength and Dynamic Performances. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, Publish Ahead of Print. https://doi.org/10.1519/jsc.0000000000004276
Lum, D., & Barbosa, T. M. (2019). Brief Review: Effects of Isometric Strength Training on Strength and Dynamic Performance. International Journal of Sports Medicine, 40(06), 363–375. https://doi.org/10.1055/a-0863-4539