Evaluation of Criteria Associated with Abdominal Fitness Testing

Abstract

The continued use of the timed sit-up as a measure of abdominal fitness has been challenged. This study complements earlier work by evaluating a new modified curl-up test (CUT) against a standardized modified sit-up test (SUT). Results show that there is almost 60% unexplained variance between SUT and CUT scores for young, active adults. The lack of association between SUT and CUT is attributed to predetermined differences in dynamic abdominal and hip flexor muscle activity and active range of motion differences in trunk flexion between each test. In addition, angular displacement of the trunk is greater for women than men in CUT. Evidence from this study provides further support for the use of CUT as an alternative to SUT in abdominal fitness testing.