Comparison of muscle activation between traditional, clap and power push up among trained men

Ali Md Nadzalan

Abstract

This study was conducted to compare the muscle activation during traditional, clap and power push up among trained men. A total of thirty trained men that are physically active and have at least one year experienced in fitness training and having good techniques in push up exercises were recruited as study participants. Participants were required to perform all three types of push up in a randomised order to avoid bias in the exercise sequence. Electromyogram was used to detect the muscle activites of pectoralis major, triceps brachii and anterior deltoids. Muscle activation was reported as percentage of the maximum voluntary contraction value. The results showed that the muscle activation was highest during the clap push up followed by the power push up and traditional push up. As a conclusion, increasing the difficulty by applying plyometric technique during push up give a significant impact in terms of muscle activation in which is believed to be affect the muscle strength and size in long term. ? Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.

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