Trunk Lift Proper Form Front & Side View

How will students work to improve/maintain

For starters, students will work to maintain their trunk flexibility through the strength and flexibility exercises we perform at the start of class. There will be some days that are average stretching time reaches 15-20 minutes. Specifically, we will work on the camel or extension exercise where students will lift themselves off the ground using both their hands and their elbows. The days we do extended stretches, we will do 4 sets of 10 exercises where the students come up and hold the position for a second and then lower themselves. We will also incorporate the partial curl aiming to reach 3 sets of 10 repetitions. In this position, students tuck their chins to their chest and with their hands stretched out in front of them, curl their upper body forward until the shoulders clear the floor holding this position for three seconds. These like the side plank are some of the exercises we will work on to improve/maintain trunk flexibility.
While at home, students can also work on the extension or the camel, the partial curl and the side plank. However, I will give the students a laminated sheet that will include a number of stretches that students can (realistically) work on 3-5 days a week. Students will be given instructions on how to perform the quadruped arm/leg raise, along with the cat and camel raises for the lower and upper back muscles. We will also go over the routines in class. Students will also be asked to perform the pelvic tilt and the mid-back stretch while at home. There are numerous other exercises students will be given, including the lumbar rotation and knee-to-chest stretch.

Final Class Performance

As an entire class, the group improved its trunk lift height and both males and females improved their trunk lift heights. During the first trunk lift test, the girls best average height was during the second trial when they averaged 11.66 inches.
Meanwhile during the second trunk lift test the girls averaged a height of 11.83 inches. Four females equaled their maximum score of 12 inches, while one of the females went up .5 inches to 11.5 and only one of the females fell .5 inches to 11.5 equal their average score of 11.83
Furthermore the males averaged 11.83 during their first trial of the first test of the trunk lift and during the 1st trunk lift of trial 2 the males averaged a height of 11.95 and during the second trial of trunk lift two the boys averaged 11.85. Seven males equaled their height of 12 inches, while 2 males reached a new high of 12 inches (up 1 inch from trial one) and one male reached a new high of 11.5 inches (up .5 inches from trial 1).
The range was 2 inches during the first trunk test between trial 1 and 2. The range was 0.5 inches during the second trunk test between trial 1 and trial 2.
The standard deviation was .946 during the first trial of the first test of the trunk lift and .5 for the second trial of the first test of the trunk lift.
The standard deviation for the 2nd test for trial one was .342 and .301 for trial two.

Trunk Lift

Trunk Lift Round 2 in Dance Studio

Come On Out and Please Join Us Monday 7/26 in Room 131 Dance/Fitness (Room) of the Physical Education Building at 8:45. Hope to See You There!!

Class Performance as a Whole Test I

Both the girls and boys performed extremely well! Everyone (boys and girls) fell into the healthy range! I think this was due to our excellent class preparation leading up to the test, and the percentage of student-athletes we have in the class is high (thus many of the students have good flexibility in their trunk area).
Of the five girls that were tested, four of them had the same score (2 11's and 2 12's). And, the girl that didn't have the same score on both tests improved her score from test 1 (11 inches) to test 2 (12 inches). The average score for the girls on test 1 was 11.16 and the average score for the girls on test 2 improved to 11.66. One of the reasons the average improved from the first to the second test is because the girls became more familiar with how to raise their upper bodies and keep their heads in the neutral position.
On the boys side, of the ten boys that were tested six of them reached 12 inches on both test 1 and test 2. Two of the boys did fall 1 inch from 12 inches to 11 inches between test 1 and test 2, while one of the boys improved from 11 inches to 12 inches and another boy jumped from 9 inches to 12 inches between test 1 and test 2. The drop in scores by the two boys could have been due to fatigue. This the overall boys' average. The 8 boys averaged 11.83 inches on test 1 and 11.875 inches on test 2.

Reliability

The test is a reliable test because of the consistency from test 1 to test 2. The set up for both of the tests and the conditions are exactly the same. With both tests we have the students lie face down on the mats with their hands underneath their thighs. The students are told to keep their heads in a neutral (in line with their spine) position. The students accomplish this task by focusing their eyes (looking down) on the poker chips we supply for them to look at while they are performing the trunk lift. The student's partner then measures each of the two trunk lifts with a ruler in front of the student's chin.