Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate, using the YMCA Bench Press test, the absolute, dynamic, upper body muscular endurance (ME) of inactive men and women 20–49 years of age. The subjects were 215 men and 151 women. Data were factored by gender, and decade of life and compared using a two-way analysis of variance with 0.05 chosen as the level of significance. The Tukey-Kramer test was used to locate significant post hoc differences. Results indicated women performed more repetitions than men (P = 0.018) and fifth decade participants performed fewer repetitions than their third and fourth decade counterparts (P = 0.020). There was no significant (P > 0.05) age by gender interaction concerning bench press performance. We conclude that inactive, fifth decade men and women are likely to possess reduced absolute, dynamic upper body ME when compared with their younger counterparts, and that inactive adult women are likely to perform more repetitions in the YMCA bench press test than inactive adult men.