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Sit and Reach

Introduction:

Being able to stretch, bend twist and turn through a full range of movement (ROM) is very important in everyday life – for those awkward jobs around the house, when shopping and gardening or for getting in and out of cars, buses and trains.

Flexibility is the ROM available to a joint or group of joints. The Sit and Reach test gives a good indication of overall flexibility as it involves the calves, hamstrings, pelvis, lower back, shoulders and arms.

Equipment:

• Sit and Reach Board/box

Testing Procedure: 

1. Advise the subject to limber up gently and loosen the limbs by mild stretching exercise for a minute or two.
2. The subject is to sit on the floor and place both feet (without shoes) against the vertical surface of the `sit and reach' board.
3. With knees and elbows locked, the subject places one hand on the other, palms down, fingers out stretched with fingers overlapping.
4. The subject with knees straight, slowly and smoothly flexes the trunk and hips and stretches forward as far as possible, sliding both the hands along the scale down the board as far as is comfortable without undue pain or exertion. Ensure one hand does not lead.

    

5. Jerking and bobbing forward is not permitted; it must be an even movement, and the extreme reach position must be held for two to three seconds, then relax.
6. Record the distance reached.
7. The best score of three trials is recorded with a short rest being allowed between trials.

Note:

Different boards have different calibration, the most common being where the vertical footrest surface is adjacent to a score of zero centimeters. Scores beyond this point are positive scores and scores before this point are negative scores.

Others start with zero at the bottom of the board, 30cms at the footrest surface and therefore only yield positive results.

The sit and reach test, although requiring a combined joint action movement, gives an overall approximation of flexibility around the hip joint. However, it fails to differentiate between lumbar-sacral flexibility, hamstring muscle length, neural tension, anthropometric measures of arm, trunk and limb length and calf flexibility. A poor Sit & Reach Test result should be followed by a lumbar-sacral spine flexion & true hamstring (straight leg raise) flexibility test.