Upper Body Eligibility Study

Generally, as men and women age, the ability to stretch as far as a younger child is not as easy due to a decline in flexibility. When a child hits puberty, flexibility will diminish because the tendons and muscles are not able to keep up with the rapid growth of the bones. Though, women are able to gain or improve their flexibility after puberty because of estrogen (Stricker, 11/4/2014). As joints age, they lose flexibility because they are not as healthy as a child’s joints (Appleton, 1/9/96). Men have less flexibility because men tend to have more muscle than women have. When there is more muscle in a human body, there isn’t as much room for a joint to move. This is why women tend to be more flexible than men (Stricker, 11/4/2014).
Part Two The goal of the experiment is to determine whether or not age affects flexibility in both genders of swimmers. Upper body and lower body flexibility is to be measured to determined the flexibility in females …show more content…
The female lower body flexibility decreased by 3.05 centimeters in the 6-11 age group and in the 12-18 age group, the average flexibility decreased by 0.23 centimeters. For male lower body flexibility, the average flexibility decreased by 4.06 cm in the 6-11 age group. While the flexibility had increased for the 12-18 year old males by 5.11 centimeters (Figure 2). The average 12-18 year old males are more flexible than the 3-5 year old males.
In upper body flexibility, the 3-5 and 12-18 year old boys were more flexible than the girls. However, the female’s average upper body increased as the ages rose (Figure 1). Although, the 6-11 year old females were more flexible than the 6-11 year old males. Between the female and male upper body flexibility, there is a 9.07 centimeters difference between the genders, the males being more flexible. In both upper and lower body trials for males, the 6-11 age group