COMPARATION OF ABDOMINAL WALL ACTIVATION DURING SIT- UP AND CURL- UP EXERCISES IN WOMEN

Pedro Pezarat - Correia, Helena Nobre, & Jan Cabri.

Faculty of Human Movement - Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal.

Fourteen healthy females performed series of sit-up and curl-up exercises, with and without fixation for the legs. Electrogoniometers were placed on the hip and dorsal spine. Surface EMG was recorded from the superior and inferior portions of the rectus abdominis, external oblique, internal oblique, and rectus femoris of both sides. Muscle patterns and normalized values of integrated EMG were compared. The results indicated that the sit-up exercise solicitated higher activity of the abdominal muscles then the curl-up, when the exercises were performed with or without fixation of the legs. Also, the sit-up exercise required high activity of the rectus femoris, mainly with fixation for the legs.