Integration Core Exercises Elicit Greater Muscle Activation Than Isolation Exercises

ABSTRACTGottschall, JS, Mills, J, and Hastings, B. Integration core exercises elicit greater muscle activation than isolation exercises. J Strength Cond Res 27(3)590–596, 2013—The American College of Sports Medicine and the United States Department of Health and Human Services advocate core training...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of strength and conditioning research 2013-03, Vol.27 (3), p.590-596
Main Authors: Gottschall, Jinger S., Mills, Jackie, Hastings, Bryce
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abdominal Muscles - physiology
Analysis of Variance
Electromyography
Exercise
Exercise - physiology
Female
Human performance
Humans
Injuries
Male
Mobility
Muscle, Skeletal - physiology
Muscular system
Sports training
Young Adult
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:ABSTRACTGottschall, JS, Mills, J, and Hastings, B. Integration core exercises elicit greater muscle activation than isolation exercises. J Strength Cond Res 27(3)590–596, 2013—The American College of Sports Medicine and the United States Department of Health and Human Services advocate core training as a means to improve stability, reduce injury, and maintain mobility. There are countless exercises that target the primary core trunk muscles (abdominal and lumbar) with the aim of providing these benefits. However, it is unknown as to which exercises elicit the greatest activation thereby maximizing functional gains and peak performance. Thus, our purpose was to determine whether integration core exercises that require activation of the distal trunk muscles (deltoid and gluteal) elicit greater activation of primary trunk muscles in comparison with isolation core exercises that only require activation of the proximal trunk muscles. Twenty participants, 10 men and 10 women, completed 16 randomly assigned exercises (e.g., crunch, upper body extension, and hover variations). We measured muscle activity with surface electromyography of the anterior deltoid, rectus abdominus, external abdominal oblique, lumbar erector spinae, thoracic erector spinae, and gluteus maximus. Our results indicate that the activation of the abdominal and lumbar muscles was the greatest during the exercises that required deltoid and gluteal recruitment. In conclusion, when completing the core strength guidelines, an integrated routine that incorporates the activation of distal trunk musculature would be optimal in terms of maximizing strength, improving endurance, enhancing stability, reducing injury, and maintaining mobility.
ISSN:1064-8011
1533-4287
DOI:10.1519/JSC.0b013e31825c2cc7