The effect of 10-week wholebody calisthenics training program on the muscular endurance of untrained collegiate students

Abstract

The study aimed to investigate the effects of calisthenics exercise on muscular endurance by implementing a 10-week whole-body calisthenic training program on 183 randomly selected untrained collegiate students (108 females, 75 males). A two-group pretest-posttest design was employed (CG = 88; EG = 95), accompanied by three muscular endurance field tests to thoroughly observe the probable effects of the training program on this fitness component. The pretest involved administering fitness tests, followed by the 10-week training program for the EG. The CG was instructed to engage in one hour of preferred physical activity three times a week for 10 weeks. Post-testing was completed by administering the same fitness tests. The normality of the data was assessed using the Shapiro-Wilk test. For intragroup comparison, the Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used, while for intergroup comparison, the Mann-Whitney U test was employed. Among females in the CG, the One Minute Push-up Test showed a significant improvement from a mean of 10.80 (±7.18) to 13.97 (±7.53) (p < .00001*), while the PT increased from 68.83 (±37.80) to 78.79 (±41.50) (p = .00036*), and the Wall Sit scores rose from 48.90 (±27.04) to 65.59 (±31.86) (p < .00001*). In males, the Wall Sit demonstrated a significant improvement from 58.15 (±26.47) to 83.88 (±50.28) (p = .00022*). Conversely, the EG exhibited significant improvements in all three tests for both females and males. Inter-group comparisons revealed the EG's significantly higher mean scores in the One Minute Push-up Test (24.50 vs. 18.17, p = .00494*), PT(107.87 vs. 79.85, p = .01044* for males), and Wall Sit (112.34 vs. 83.88, p = .01255*). Both female and male participants in the EG showed significant improvements in the One Minute Push-up Test, Planking Test, and Wall Sit compared to the CG, with consistently higher mean scores across all tests.