Multivariate Analysis of Vertical Jump Predicting Health-related Physical Fitness Performance

Abstract

Background: Health-related fitness tests measure one of five different traits: cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, body composition, and flexibility. To assess an individual on all five traits can be costly and time consuming. Thus, it would be useful to the fitness practitioner if one single test could be used as a proxy for overall fitness. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to employ multivariate data analyses to examine the ability of the vertical jump (VJ) to predict health-related fitness performance. Methods: This study used data from college students who completed both ten different health-related fitness tests and the VJ assessment. Three body composition measures were used: percent body fat (PBF, %), body mass index (BMI, kg/m2), and waist circumference (WC, cm). Four muscular fitness measures were used: 1RM bench press (BP, lb), 1RM leg press (LP, lb), maximal push-up repetition (PU, #), and flexed arm hang time (FAH, sec). Two cardiorespiratory endurance measures were used: maximal oxygen consumption (VO2, ml/kg/min) and physical activity rating score (PAR, 0 thru 10). One flexibility measure was used: sit-and-reach (SNR, cm). The countermovement vertical jump (VJ, in) was used as the single predictor variable and participants were categorized into high or low VJ groups using the sex-specific median. Results: Male-specific multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) results showed that VJ significantly predicts the linear combination of body composition (λ=0.85, F=4.8, p=.004), muscular fitness (λ=0.66, F=10.4, pConclusion: Results from this study indicate that VJ is a valid predictor of health-related fitness performance in college students.