Evaluation of abdominal muscle endurance of individuals who attend gymnastics gym

Resumen

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Localized Muscular endurance (LME) of the abdominal region in relation to distinct muscle groups (hip and lumbar spine fl exor) of individuals in differing physical conditions. One hundred twenty subjects were selected at random (60 male and 60 female) 50% of whom worked out and 50% who didn’t. The AAHPERD Test (1976) and PAULA Test (1990) were used to measure the LME of hip and lumbar spine fl exor, respectively. Results indicated that subjects who worked out differ significantly (p<0.01) from subjects who didn’t in relation to the LME of lumbar spine flexor for both males and females and the hip flexor for females (p<0.05). The correlations obtained between hip and lumbar spine flexor for females who worked out (r=0.45) and who did not work out (r=0.44) could be considered low/moderate, being moderate for males who worked out (r=0.57) and low for males who didn’t (r=0.36). Although these correlations values were statistically signifi cant (p<0.05) for women who worked out and who didn’t and for men who did, the r2 values demonstrate a low degree of shared variance between the muscle groups (varying between 33.52% and 13.32%). The results suggested that neither male or female subjects had muscular balance between lumbar spine and hip flexor, and that differences in LME of lumbar spine flexor were always more pronounced than for hip flexor, in favor of subjects who worked out.