Muscle activation during battle rope exercises

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to 1) compare electromyographic (EMG) responses in the vastus medialis (VM), gluteus maximus (GM), erector spinae (ES), external oblique (EO), rectus abdominis (RA), upper trapezius (UT), anterior deltoid (AD), and palmaris longus (PL) during five battle rope (BR) exercises to determine which exercises produced the greatest muscle activation, and 2) determine if the muscles tested were activated to a sufficient degree (greater than 40% MVIC) to increase in muscle strength. Twelve males completed 10 seconds of the following exercises in a random order: Double Arm Slams, Double Arm Waves, Double Alternating Waves, Single Arm Waves, and Double Outside Circles. Surface EMG was measured and represented as a percent of the maximal voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC). A one-way ANOVA with repeated measures was used to compare EMG for each muscle between exercises. Overall, Double Arm Slams elicited the highest EMG for all of the muscles tested. All of the muscles tested were contracting at greater than 40% MVIC for Double Arm Slams and Double Arm Waves. The VM, GM, and RA were contracting at greater than 40% MVIC for all of the exercises except for Double Alternating Waves and Single Arm Waves. All the muscles were contracting at greater than 40% MVIC for Double Outside Circles, except for the RA and AD. Based on these results, all of the BR exercises tested activated the muscles sufficiently to increase strength, with the exceptions of the VM, GM, RA, and AD.