To develop muscle strength index for establishing norms and comparison of muscle strength for Indian recreational collegiate and sedentary college students

ABSTRACT Background: Muscular strength is defined as ability of a muscle or muscle group to exert force. Index is a scale or number on it that expresses the value of something in relation to something else like consumer price index. In similar way muscle strength endurance index shows the score against each performed muscle strength endurance test. By having such index we can actually aggregate and compare the strength of different muscle group according to relative score of particular test. So, this study is designed to develop an index of muscular strength which includes 10 standard muscular strength tests and to determine reliability of index. Method: The study was descriptive with comparative in fraction. One hundred twenty subjects of age group 20-25 were recruited and thorough explanation was given about procedure. They were divided in to two groups recreational collegiate & sedentary college students each consists of 60 subjects. Muscle strength index consists of push up, curl up, chin up, bench press, leg press, lateral pull, arm curl, leg curl, knee extension and 1 RM squat test performed within two days, on the same time & in this order only. Each test carried five points total of fifty points muscle strength index derived & comparison of muscle strength done between two groups. Results: we found significant difference in muscle strength between recreational collegiate & sedentary college student at p