The Effect of Abdominal Contraction and Relaxation on The Muscle Activity of The Scapulothoracic Joint Muscle and Abdominal Muscle during Push-Up Plus Exercise

Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of conscious abdominal contraction during push-up plusexercise, abdominal contraction through verbal encouragement. Design: A cross-sectional study. Methods: Muscle activity was measured by dividing push-up plus exercise into 4 conditions in 23 healthy adult men and women. The four conditions were push-up plus exercise without abdominal contraction, push-up plus exercise with conscious abdominalcontraction, push-up plus exercise with abdominal contraction with verbal encouragement, and consciously relax the abdomenduring push-up plus exercise combined with abdominal contraction techniques for 30 seconds. Results: When performing the basic movement of the push-up plus exercise without abdominal contraction, significantly highermuscle activity was shown in the serratus anterior muscle than when both conscious abdominal contraction and abdominalcontraction through verbal encouragement were performed (p<0.05), and the external and internal oblique muscles showed thehighest muscle activity during abdominal contraction through verbal encouragement (p<0.05). When the abdomen was consciously relaxed during the push-up plus exercise combined with the abdominal contraction technique for 30 seconds, themuscle activity of the serratus anterior muscle was significantly higher than when the abdominal contraction technique was combined (p<0.05). Conclusions: Through this study, it was confirmed that the contraction of the abdominal muscles was not involved in the increasein the muscle activity of the serratus anterior muscle, but rather increased when the abdomen was relaxed. Based on these results,it will be possible to suggest an appropriate exercise method when applying the push-up plus exercise in clinical practice.