EMG ACTIVITY OF THE ABDOMINAL MUSCLES USING TRADITIONAL CRUNCHES VS AN ABDOMINAL EXERCISE ASSISTIVE DEVICE

PURPOSE: It has been suggested that the use of an assistive device to perform abdominal crunches may help to isolate the activity of the abdominal muscles, thus improving activation and response to training. The purpose of this study was to compare activation of the upper (UA) and lower (LA) abdomin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhysical therapy Vol. 80; no. 5; p. S33
Main Authors Avakian, J, Keresztes, M, Oakley, B, Millar, L
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford University Press 01.05.2000
Subjects
Abdomen
Abdominal muscles
Exercise
Exercise physiology
Measurement
Muscle contraction
Muscles
Physiological aspects
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ISSN0031-9023

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Summary:PURPOSE: It has been suggested that the use of an assistive device to perform abdominal crunches may help to isolate the activity of the abdominal muscles, thus improving activation and response to training. The purpose of this study was to compare activation of the upper (UA) and lower (LA) abdominal musculature using traditional style abdominal crunches and an abdominal exercise assistive device. SUBJECTS: Subjects included 35 individuals, both male and female, with a mean age of 22 [+ or -] 5.3 years. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Surface electrodes were placed on the upper and lower rectus abdominus. Subjects were asked to perform six crunches using both the traditional style and the abdominal exercise assistive device. The order of activities was randomly selected and the subjects were given a short practice session with each. Duration of each muscle contraction was standardized using verbal commands. Peak electromyographic activity was recorded for each repetition and averaged for that trial. EMG activity was rectified and integrated prior to averaging, and final measures were recorded in microVolts. ANALYSES AND RESULTS: Mean EMG activity for the UA was 8.49 [+ or -] 5.50 [micro]V for the traditional crunches versus 8.17 [+ or -] 5.46 [micro]V using the abdominal exercise assistive device. Average activity for the LA was 5.41 [+ or -] 4.27 and 5.69 [+ or -] 3.82 [micro]V respectively, for the traditional crunches and the abdominal exercise assistive device crunches. A paired samples t-test revealed no significant difference (p [is greater than] .05) between the two types of abdominal exercises. The correlation between the UA activities was .93 and .87 for the LA activities. CONCLUSIONS: Thus, we conclude that there is no benefit in using an abdominal exercise assistive device versus traditional, unassisted, crunches if considering muscle activation.
ISSN:0031-9023