Comparison of Trunk Muscles between 3 Different Squats in Normal Adults

Objective: This Study aimed to examine the changes in muscle activity of trunk muscles by performing three squat exercises on normal adults.Design: cross-sectional study Methods: Thirty-two adult subjects participated in this study.General squat, overhead squat, and overhead squat combined with abdominal stabilization were randomly performed for 5 seconds, 3 times, to calculate the average muscle activation.Muscle activation was normalized using electrodes on the rectus abdominis, external oblique, internal oblique, and erector spinae muscles to measure maximum voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC) for 5 seconds, repeated 3 times each.Results: There was a significant difference in the mean and maximal muscle activity of the bilateral erector spinae (ES) when comparing the squat to the overhead squat (p＜0.05).There was a significant difference (p＜0.05) in the mean and maximal muscle activity of the bilateral external oblique (EO) when comparing the overhead squat to the overhead squat combined with the abdominal stabilization technique.When comparing the squat to the overhead squat with abdominal stabilization, there was a significant difference in the mean and maximum muscle activity of the bilateral RA, EO, and left Internal oblique (IO) (p＜0.05), and there was a significant difference in the maximum muscle activity of the bilateral erector spinae (ES) (p＜0.05).Post hoc tests showed significant differences between squatting methods for the RA, EO, IO, and ES (p＜0.017). Conclusion:The results of this study showed that squats combined with abdominal stabilization were more effective at activating core muscles than squats or overhead squats alone.