Abstract

One of the main physical abilities required in rhythmic gymnastics is flexibility. This study aimed to determine the levels of lower limb flexibility and the possible asymmetry indexes of gymnasts in the Junior 1st Division in Portugal. The sample consisted of 30 gymnasts with a mean age of 13.73 ± 0.17 years. For the evaluation we used a battery of tests in which we gathered images of the gymnasts performing each movement in the study for subsequent analysis and classification on a scale of five levels (0-4). For statistical analysis we used non-parametric tests (Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon). The main results showed that 86.7% of the gymnasts presented high indexes of flexibility asymmetry between the dominant and non-dominant limbs of different magnitudes.