Comparison of abdominal and lumbar muscles electromyography activity during two types of stabilization exercises

Stabilization exercises lead to improve muscle performance and can be used to prevent and treat of low back pain. Aim of the present study is to evaluate and compare the level of abdominal and lumbar muscles activity during two types of stabilization exercises. Thirty healthy females aged between 20 - 30 years old participated in this quasi-experimental study. Muscle activity was recorded from Transversus Abdominus [TrA], Internal Oblique [IO] and multifidus on both sides with electromyography [EMG] device during the quadruped and dead bug exercises. EMG data were normalized to the percentage of maximum voluntary isometric contraction and paired t-test was used for statistical analysis. The mean muscle activity in the right arm reach of quadruped and dead bug exercises showed that right IO and TrA muscles produced greater activity during quadruped exercise [P = 0.015, P = 0.001, respectively]. The comparison between the mean muscles activity in the left leg reach of two exercises showed that right and left TrA muscles produced greater activity during left leg reach in quadruped exercise [P = 0.005, P = 0.046, respectively]. Also, the comparison between the mean muscle activity in simultaneous movements of left leg and right arm reach in the 2 exercises showed that right TrA muscle was activated at a higher level compared to the other muscles in the quadruped exercise [P = 0.002]. The results showed quadruped exercise can provide stability, coordination, and smoothness of the movements in healthy subjects and all considered muscles participated in this exercise

Is abdominal muscle activity different from lumbar muscle activity during four-point kneeling?

Background: Stabilization exercises can improve the performance of trunk and back muscles, which are effective in the prevention and treatment of low back pain. The four-point kneeling exercise is one of the most common types of stabilization exercises. This quasi-experimental study aimed to evaluate and compare the level of activation between abdominal and lumbar muscles in the different stages of the four-point kneeling exercise

Methods: The present study was conducted on 30 healthy women between 20 and 30 years old. Muscle activity was recorded bilaterally from transversus abdominis, internal oblique, and multifidus muscles with an electromyography [EMG] device during the different stages of the four-point kneeling exercise. All the collected EMG data were normalized to the percentage of maximum voluntary isometric contraction. The repeated measures ANOVA and paired t-test were used for the statistical analysis of the data

Results: A comparison between mean muscle activation in right arm extension and left leg extension showed that left internal oblique and left transverse abdominis muscles produced greater activation during left leg extension [P<0.05]. The comparison of mean muscle activation between right arm extension and the birddog position showed that, except for the right internal oblique, all the muscles produced higher activation in the bird-dog stage [P<0.05]. In comparison to the bird-dog stage, the left multifidus showed high activation during left leg extension [P<0.05]

Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the activity of all the above-mentioned muscles during quadruped exercise can provide stability, coordination, and smoothness of movements