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Table 2-5 Crunches — Men

Age: Under 35 36–45 Over 45

Excellent 60 50 40

Good 45 40 25

Marginal 30 25 15

Needs work 15 10 5

Table 2-6 Crunches — Women

Age: Under 35 36–45 Over 45

Excellent 50 40 30

Good 40 25 15

Marginal 25 15 10

Needs work 10 6 4

Measuring your lower-body strength ...............................................

The strength of your lower-body muscles is often measured on a leg-extension

machine, which targets your front-thigh muscles. (This machine is sort of like

a big chair with a high back.) Some clubs test lower-body strength on other

machines; others don’t test your lower-body strength at all.

You can test the strength of your thigh and butt muscles at home by doing an

exercise called a squat, described in Chapter 14. We suggest that, if you’re a

woman, you hold a 5-pound dumbbell in each hand with your arms hanging

down at your sides, and if you’re a man, use 15-pound dumbbells. If you’re a

novice, skip the weight and place your hands on your hips.

There are few standard norms for this test, so just use your results as a basis

of comparison for future evaluations.

How Flexible Are You? ..................................................................................

How come gymnasts can wrap their legs around their shoulders while you

have trouble touching your toes? Because gymnasts are more flexible than

you are. Flexibilityrefers to how far you can move around a joint’s axis (your

28 Part I: Getting Your Butt off the Couch