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The AAHPER youth fitness test battery, a trunk flexion test, and trunk extension test were administered to 99% of the boys and girls in a senior high school (grades 9–12). The children in this school are required each term to enroll in five “solid” subjects and select one elective (physical education, band, chorus, or art). The relationship between the elective currently selected by the boys and girls and scores on the fitness test was studied. It was clear that boys and girls enrolled in physical education scored highest; those in band were next; and those in art or chorus had the poorest scores. Children were next grouped as to whether they had elected (a) physical education essentially all of their semesters in school, (b) about half of the semesters or (c) never elected physical education. In the case of the boys, the mean difference in fitness scores of those who had had 7 or 8 semesters of physical education (seniors) compared with age-matched boys who had never elected physical education w...

In order to evaluate the static stretching procedures of Hatha Yoga for improvement of flexibility, 57 male college subjects were divided into two groups, one of which trained by static stretching, the other by conventional ballistic methods of stretching for seven 30-min. periods. The subjects were tested before and after the experimental period on Cureton's flexibility tests, involving trunk flexion, trunk extension, and shoulder elevation. Both groups made statistically significant gains at the .01 level of confidence in all three measures. None of the differences in gains between groups were significant at the .05 level of confidence.

Equations have been developed to predict the maximal oxygen intake (\(\dot V_{O_2 }\) (max) of pre-adolescent schoolchildren from anthropometric data. The analysis is based on a study of 22 boys and 23 girls aged 9–13 years, part of a random sample of Toronto schoolchildren. The 37 x-variates tested in a series of multiple regression equations include measurements of body surface area (BSA, m2), lean body mass (LBM, kg), age (A, months) kneefold thickness (K) arm extension force (AE, kg), trunk flexion force (TF, kg), arm girth (AG, cm), and summated strength index (∑S). The most promising equations, with their respective coefficients of variation (C. V.) are as follows: For boys 0.645 (BSA) + 0.0116 (A) + 0.0925 (K) − 1.085 (C. V. 13.5%) 0.0216 (LBM) + 0.0117 (A) + 0.105 (K) − 1.19 (C. V. 13.6%) −0.0099 (LBM) + 0.0030 (A) + 0.125 (K) + 0.0099 (∑S) − 0.34 (C. V. 9.7%) 0.0468 (AE) + 0.117 (K) + 0.23 (C. V. 11.3%) 0.0605 (AG) + 0.0242 (TF) + 0.065 (K) − 0.30 (C. V. 9.9%) For girls 1.127 (BSA) + 0.0058 (A) + 0.0327 (K) − 0.753 (C. V. 7.3%) 0.0480 (LBM) + 0.0050 (A) + 0.043 (K) − 0.89 (C. V. 8.1%) 0.0384 (LBM) + 0.0035 (A) + 0.043 (K) + 0.0020 (∑S) − 0.63 (C. V. 7.9%)

In this study, 16 strength and 10 anthropometric tests were related by correlational methods to 8 trunk and leg measures, involving dynamometric strength, muscular endurance, agility, and power. The intercorrelations among some of the anthropometric variables were especially high: .91, standing height with leg length; .88, foot length with leg length; and .87, body weight with both hip width and thigh girth. The highest strength test intercorrelation was .65 between trunk flexion and extension. Significant multiple correlations obtained were: .74 for leg lift with body weight, ankle dorsal flexion strength, and trunk flexion strength; .71 for back lift with knee extension strength, hip width, trunk flexion strength, and knee flexion strength; and .66 for standing broad jump with adipose tissue over the abdomen (negative) and hip extension strength (positive).

The upper and lower rectus abdominis (RA) were studied electromyographically through a series of 10 strenuous abdominal exercises and a trunk flexion isometric strength test. Intensity of contraction was greatest in the basket hang, followed by three variations of the hook sit-up. The curl-up and the inclined, arched back and conventional sit-ups came next in intensity, while the V-sit and controlled backward lean were the least strenuous exercises tested. In the upper RA several of the exercises elicited greater MAPs than were elicited by the maximal isometric effort involved in the trunk flexion test. The apparently strenuous nature of the basket hang, which is primarily a movement of thigh rather than trunk flexion, implies that this exercise may be useful in the abdominal training of highly conditioned athletes.