Electromyography-Getting the most out of your exercises

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Getting the most out of your exercises

If you are wondering about the benefits of your exercises then it may be time to check into some of the recent electromyography (EMG) findings. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this process let me explain a bit.

The EMG test assesses the neuromuscular health of muscle tissue by detection of the electrical activity within the muscle. Contraction of a certain muscle during an exam shows up as an action potential on a screen called an oscilloscope. If this contraction happens to be in conjunction with a particular exercise, for example a bench press, then the electrodes will respond accordingly depending on the place of insertion in the muscle.

As the contractions continue to get harder and harder more action potentials show up on the screen. With full contraction all of the fibers that are able to fire are displayed in a dazzling array of rates and amplitudes. This then represents the complete, for this particular individual, recruitment and interference pattern for this exercise and for this muscle.

Following up a little on the bench press example tests have shown that of the exercises commonly performed for the bench for the pectoralis major, the following elicit the greatest electrical activity. Remember, the higher this response the greater the stimulation of the muscle fibers by the motor control units.

One would surmise that due to the popularity of the flat bench press that it would be the one that produced the greatest response from the EMG test. Not so. Instead this form of exercise is fifth on the list. It is actually preceded by the decline dumbbell bench press at 93% EMG maximum. From here the list shows the decline bench press with the Olympic bar at 89%. Even a push up that is performed between two benches rates higher than the flat bench with a reading of 88%. Only the flat dumbbell flyes come in lower than the flat bench-they register at 84%.

So where do the flat bench press with barbell appear on the list? At a measly 85% EMG maximum activity for the pectoralis major.

Still want to do all of those flat benches every week?

	Author:	Danny ODell (Danny ODell's profile, Danny ODell's blog)
	Posted On:	Sunday, 21st October '07, 9:55pm
	Tags:	Bodybuilding, Strength Training, Training, Training Programs and Weight Training
	Comments:	1 comment, go to comments