David Dwight Peterson* |
Corresponding Author: David Dwight Peterson, Cedarville University, 251 N. Main St., Cedarville, OH 453154, Ohio, USA |
Revised: 21 September 2020; |
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The U.S. Navy currently
employs sit-ups as part of its semi-annual physical fitness in order to assess
the abdominal muscular endurance of service-members. However, there is
speculation that sit-up performance may be associated with anthropometric
proportions thereby affording certain service-members with a biomechanical
advantage. To test this theory, anthropometric measurements were taken at
various sites (i.e., humerus, torso, femur, and tibia) across a convenience
sample of 69 participants (37 male/32 female), to include student, active duty,
and retired military personnel from the United States Naval Academy. Humerus
length (r = 0.297), tibia length (r = 0.385) and sex (r = 0.314) were all found
to be moderately correlated with sit-up performance. These findings, coupled
with well- documented concerns of the sit-ups in terms of safety and relevance
in the literature, make a compelling argument for the identification and
implementation of other potential field tests to assess abdominal muscular
endurance.
Keywords: Military
physical fitness test, Sit up test, Anthropometric measurements.