Shoulder muscle EMG activity during push up variations on and off a Swiss ball

Dynamic Medicine

Table 1 Average trunk and shoulder muscle activity during the push up and push up plus exercises when performed on a Swiss ball and an exercise bench.

	Triceps		Pectoralis Major		Rectus Abdominis		External Oblique
	Bench	Ball	Bench	Ball	Bench	Ball	Bench	Ball
PUHands	22.2 ± 8.8	*43.1 ± 17.3 p = .002	21.4 ± 11.8	26.65 ± 14.5 p = .341	13.4 ± 5.4	22.6 ± 8.6 p = .001	20.9 ± 15.6	24.07 ± 11.9 p = .1191
PUFeet	32.7 ± 17.5	29.9 ± 10.1 p = .355	30.4 ± 9.7	29.9 ± 7.6 p = .717	19.2 ± 6.9	19.6 ± 7.14 p = .742	27.79 ± 13.2	26.7 ± 9.8 p = .575
PUPHands	18.7 ± 10.3	*29.6 ± 14.7 p = .024	14 ± 7.2	21.4 ± 18.5 p = .079	14.9 ± 5.5	*25.4 ± 10.2 p = .011	19.2 ± 11.9	*23.9 ± 11.9 p = .0069

Muscle activity is expressed as a percentage of a maximum voluntary contraction (%MVC). A * indicates a statistically significant difference (p < .05) between the exercises using a Swiss ball or bench as the support surface (PUHands = Push up with hands on bench/ball, PUFeet = push up with feet on ball/bench and PUPHands = push up plus exercise with hands on ball/bench).