The selection and validation of age- and gender-specific criterion-referenced cut-points for abdominal endurance are still unclear.
OBJECTIVE:
To stablish normative values for abdominal endurance in adolescents by age and gender using the Bench Trunk Curl-up Test (BTC). Additionally, the reliability of the BTC was analyzed.
METHODS:
Two hundred and sixteen untrained high school students (104 males 112 females) were grouped into five age strata. Participants performed the BTC twice with a rest period of 72 h. Descriptive statistics and percentile scores were determined for each gender/age strata.
RESULTS:
Males showed higher BTC scores than females (males: 90.07 32.65 repetitions; females: 73.43 27.74 repetitions), but no significant differences between age strata nor age gender interaction were found. Significant differences for the BTC scores between sessions were found (T1 72.06 26.28 repetitions; T2 81.44 31.27 repetitions). The ICC was 0.82, whereas the typical error was 17.2%.
CONCLUSIONS:
Gender, but not age, is an important factor when abdominal endurance is compared between adolescents. Finally, the BTC is a reliable test, supporting the findings of this study. However, an extensive familiarization period to reduce the learning effect is necessary.
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