Abstract
Aims/HypothesisThe aim of this study was to examine the sit up test to exhaustion as a field test for muscular endurance evaluation in a sample of sedentary people of both sexes.MethodsA cross-sectional study was performed. Three-hundred-eighty-one participants volunteered for the study (28.5 ± 10.0 years; 168.2 ± 8.9 cm; 65.1 ± 11.1 kg), of which 194 males (27.5 ± 10.2 years; 173.6 ± 7.0 cm; 71.2 ± 5.2 kg) and 187 females (29.6 ± 10.1 years; 162.6 ± 7.1 cm; 58.7 ± 8.9 kg). Each subject voluntarily and randomly performed: a sit up test (SUT), a push up test (PUT), and a free weight squat test (ST), all till exhaustion. A multiple regression analysis was adopted for data analysis. Subsequently a percentile model for muscle endurance was developed. The 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile were identified as upper limit for low muscular endurance, average muscular endurance, and lower limit for high muscular endurance, respectively.ResultsConsidering the sit up test as the dependent variable, the coefficients (R2 = 0.23; r = 0.49; p < 0.001), and (R2 = 0.31; r = 0.57; p < 0.001) emerged from a multiple regression analysis applied with respect to the push up test and the squat test, respectively. Gender stratification showed regression coefficients of (R2 = 0.19; r = 0.44; p < 0.001) for SUT vs. PUT, and (R2 = 0.30; r = 0.56; p < 0.001) for SUT vs. ST in male; and (R2 = 0.23; r = 0.49; p < 0.001) for SUT vs. PUT, and (R2 = 0.34; r = 0.59; p < 0.001) for SUT vs. ST in female.Conclusions/InterpretationThe SUT showed low inter-relation with the other proposed tests indicating that the adoption of a single test for the global evaluation of muscle endurance is not the optimal approach. Moreover, the SUT was found to be inexpensive, safe, and appropriate for core muscle endurance measurement for both male and female.
Highlights
Many activities of daily living require a sustained effort exerted over a period of time
In consideration of the recognized validity of the squat test (ST) (Dwyer and Davis 2013) and push up test (PUT) (Youdas et al 2010) to exhaustion as tests able to evaluate muscle endurance, the present study aimed to evaluate the relationships between these two practices and the sit up test (SUT) to exhaustion, to verify any relationships between different muscle compartments in the evaluation of muscle endurance and to examine if the SUT to exhaustion could be adopted as field test for muscular endurance evaluation
Setting In consideration of the recent scientific evidence which highlighted the effectiveness of the ST (Dwyer and Davis 2013) and PUT (Youdas et al 2010) to exhaustion, in the present study, the latter executions were considered as measures of reference to establish an eventual SUT to exhaustion inter-relation for the evaluation of muscle endurance
Summary
Many activities of daily living require a sustained effort exerted over a period of time. Bianco et al SpringerPlus (2015) 4:309 of laboratory ones) for the evaluation of motor skills (Lubans et al 2011), field tests have been applied in order to monitor specific training Among these tests, weighted squat (ST) and push-up (PUT) tests find references promoting the evaluation of muscle performance leading to indirectly evaluate the corresponding muscle endurance by means of the relationship between number of repetitions and selected percentages of one repetition maximum (Shimano et al 2006). Such short periods of time do not match with the definition of muscle endurance (Knudson and Johnston 1998) and it appears that longer “exposure times” are needed in order to properly evaluate abdominal muscular endurance
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