Trunk Extension Endurance Using Four Arms Positions Among Physical Therapy Collegiate Students

Active physical therapy students who are healthy and free from any significant pain at the spine will be recruited to participate in intervention endurance training. Participants will be assigned into four equal groups; doing trunk extension form lying on stomach while breathing normally and arching trunk backwards as long as tolerated. Group one will have arms above head, group two will have hands behind head, group three will have hands parallel to the trunk, and group four will receive instructions only and will act as control group. Spinal mobility of forward bending, backwards bending, right and left side bending will be taken. Straight leg raising and quadriceps flexibility will also be taken. Isokinetic measurements including peak torque, peak torque/body weight, average peak torque, work and average power will be taken at baseline, 6 and 8 weeks. Participants will have a training volume of 2 sets of 10 repetitions, 2 minutes rest in between, 2x/day for 6 to 8 weeks. Endurance timing will be measured in seconds using stop watch. If participant managed to maintain the trunk extension position for 4 minutes, time is recorded and it is considered as ceiling time.