Cooper Institute Fitness Norms (2013 Monograph)
The Cooper Institute's 2013 monograph Physical Fitness Assessments and Norms for Adults and Law Enforcement (Dallas TX) is a reference library containing about ten fitness test norm charts. It is not a fixed "battery": law enforcement academies pick five to six of these tests to build their own field-testing batteries, which is why different academies test different combinations.
Tests in the Monograph
The 2013 Cooper monograph publishes norm charts for the tests below.
| Fitness category | Test | Norm source | On this site |
|---|---|---|---|
| Body Fat | Skinfolds | Cooper Institute | Not hosted (we host body fat from a different source) |
| Explosive Leg Power | Vertical Jump | LE Studies | ✓ |
| Absolute Strength | 1RM Bench Press Ratio (DVR machine) | Cooper Institute | ✓ (different protocol from the barbell bench press norms on this site) |
| Dynamic Strength (endurance) | Sit-Ups (1-Minute) | Cooper Institute | ✓ |
| Anaerobic Power | 300m Run | LE Studies | ✓ |
| Dynamic Strength (endurance) | Push-Ups (1-Minute) | Cooper Institute | ✓ |
| Cardiorespiratory Fitness | Balke Treadmill, 1-Mile Walk (VO₂max), 12-Minute Run, 1.5-Mile Run | Cooper Institute | Not hosted from this table. The site's 1.5-mile grid reproduces the different CCS scoring document. |
| Flexibility | Sit-and-Reach | Cooper Institute | Not hosted from this source. We host sit-and-reach from Canadian CHMS data (different population and protocol). |
| Agility | Illinois Agility Run | LE data (no age-based norms) | Not hosted |
Source labels: "Cooper Institute" = Cooper Clinic patients; "LE Studies" = law enforcement research samples.
Hosted here: ✓ marks tests with hosted norm pages on this site. Other rows are included for reference only.
How academies use these norms
Law enforcement organisations publish different batteries and scoring systems under the Cooper name. A percentile norm describes rank within a source group; it does not by itself establish the minimum fitness required for a job. Each scoring document must be checked independently rather than assumed to reproduce one monograph table.
Examples of Cooper-labelled scoring documents:
- CCS Cooper Standards (ccstest.com): 5 tests: push-ups, sit-ups, 1.5-mile run, 300m run, vertical jump. Category-based scoring (Superior down to Very Poor).
- RCTC LAWE (Rochester Community and Technical College, Minnesota): 6 tests: trunk flex, vertical jump, sit-ups, 300m run, push-ups, 1.5-mile run. 20-point scoring scale per test; pass threshold = total score ≥ 42.
Who are these norms for?
The monograph combines several table-specific sources rather than one population. They include Cooper Clinic patients, employee wellness-program members, female US Army soldiers, and unspecified law-enforcement studies. None is documented as a probability sample of the general adult population, and the tables should not be collapsed into one cohort.