To examine using surface electromyography whether stair climbing with abdominal hollowing (AH) is better at facilitating local trunk muscle activity than stair climbing without AH.
Twenty healthy men with no history of low back pain participated in the study. Surface electrodes were attached to the multifidus (MF), lumbar erector spinae, thoracic erector spinae, transverse abdominus - internal oblique abdominals (TrA-IO), external oblique abdominals (EO), and the rectus abdominis. Amplitudes of electromyographic signals were measured during stair climbing. Study participants performed maximal voluntary contractions (MVC) for each muscle in various positions to normalize the surface electromyography data.
AH during stair climbing resulted in significant increases in normalized MVCs in both MFs and TrA-IOs (p<0.05). Local trunk muscle/global trunk muscle ratios were higher during stair climbing with AH as compared with stair climbing without AH. Especially, right TrA-IO/EO and left TrA-IO/EO were significantly increased (p<0.05).
Stair climbing with AH activates local trunk stabilizing muscles better than stair climbing without AH. The findings suggest that AH during stair climbing contributes to trunk muscle activation and trunk stabilization.
Citations
Objective: The aims of this study were to investigate the characteristics of stair climbing through the comparison between the stair climbing and level walking, and to present the standard values of stair climbing.
Method: Twenty healthy young adults were recruited. The kinematic and kinetic data of level walking and stair climbing on the specially designed stair were obtained through 3 dimensional motion analyzer (Vicon 370 system) with the force plate.
Results: The sagittal range of motion of all examined joints at stair climbing was significantly increased compared as at level walking (p＜0.05). The maximal flexion angle at swing phase of all examined joints were significantly increased at stair climbing compared than at level walking (p＜0.05). At loading response, the kinetic data showed the significant differences between stair climbing and level walking. The time when the maximal extensor moment of knee developed was significantly earlier than when that of hip developed (p＜0.05).
Conclusion: As a results, we found that stair climbing was different from level walking and had the unique pattern in the kinematic and kinetic aspect. The motion analysis of stair climbing may be useful to the further studies.
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