The relationship between relative sitting height and flexibility in the Czech adult population

Hrazdíra, E., Grasgruber, P. & Sebera, M. (2014). The relationship between relative sitting height and flexibility in the Czech adult population. J. Hum. Sport Exerc., 9(Proc1), pp.S445-S448. The aim of this research was to describe the relationship between the level of flexibility (sit-and-reach test) and relative sitting height (sitting height/body height ratio). The survey was conducted between 2011-13 in 1370 individuals (739 women and 631 men) divided into 6 age groups: 18-29 (n=451), 30-39 (n=310), 40-49 (n=248), 50-59 (n=147) 60-69 (n=164) and 70+ years (n=50). Flexibility was measured using the sit-andreach test, according to the methodology of Eurofit (3 attempts, only the best one was recorded). The values of relative sitting height were computed from the ratio between sitting height and total body height. he results showed that there is a significant correlation between the examined variables (r = 0.213), i.e. a proportionally longer trunk and shorter legs may have an impact on the result of sit-and-reach test, but the correlation is low (r2 = 0.045). This finding indicated that the result in the sit-and-reach test can be influenced by more factors than only by pure flexibility.