ArticleEuropean journal of applied physiology2012
Muscle activity of the core during bilateral, unilateral, seated and standing resistance exercise.
Article in European journal of applied physiology, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The Effects of Trunk Muscle Training on Physical Fitness and Sport-Specific Performance in Young and Adult Athletes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2022Pooled it
- Effects on Strength, Power and Speed Execution Using Exercise Balls, Semi-Sphere Balance Balls and Suspension Training Devices: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- Core Muscle Activity During Physical Fitness Exercises: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Pooled it
- A self-oblique exercise that activates the coordinated activity of abdominal and hip muscles-A pilot study.PloS one · 2021Trial
- Trial
- Trial
- Comparison of Unilateral, Asymmetric and Traditional Bilateral Resistance Training in Untrained Women: A Pilot and Proof-of-Concept Study.Journal of functional morphology and kinesiology · 2026Article
- The effect of exercise complexity on trunk muscle activation and perceived exertion during body-weight training in recreationally trained adults.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2026Article
- Can Unilateral Strength Training Optimize Change of Direction Mechanics and Mitigate Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury Risk in Female Soccer Players? A Preliminary Pre-Post Intervention Study.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Mechanobiological and neuromuscular responses to foot-position variations during front and back squat exercises.Frontiers in physiology · 2025Article
- How Does Instability Affect Bench Press Performance? Acute Effect Analysis with Different Loads in Trained and Untrained Populations.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Effect of unilateral training and bilateral training on physical performance: A meta-analysis.Frontiers in physiology · 2023Review
- Effects of loading positions on the activation of trunk and hip muscles during flywheel and dumbbell single-leg Romanian deadlift exercises.Frontiers in physiology · 2023Article
- Acute circulatory and femoral hemodynamic responses induced by standing core exercise at different rotational cadence: a crossover study.BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2022Article
- The Effect of Grip Width on Muscle Strength and Electromyographic Activity in Bench Press among Novice- and Resistance-Trained Men.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- The impact of skeletal muscle wasting during neoadjuvant chemotherapy on postoperative anastomotic leakage in patients with esophageal cancer.Esophagus : official journal of the Japan Esophageal Society · 2021Article
- Electromyographic Comparison of Five Lower-Limb Muscles between Single- and Multi-Joint Exercises among Trained Men.Journal of sports science & medicine · 2021Article
- A Comparison of Muscle Activation between Barbell Bench Press and Dumbbell Flyes in Resistance-Trained Males.Journal of sports science & medicine · 2020Article
- Muscle activity in asymmetric bench press among resistance-trained individuals.European journal of applied physiology · 2020Article
- Changes in Muscle Pattern Activity during the Asymmetric Flat Bench Press (Offset Training).International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Little is known about the effect of performing common resistance exercises standing compared to seated and unilaterally compared to bilaterally on muscle activation of the core. Thus, the purpose of this study was to compare the electromyographic activity (EMG) of the superficial core muscles (i.e. rectus abdominis, external oblique and erector spinae) between seated, standing, bilateral and unilateral dumbbell shoulder presses. 15 healthy males performed five repetitions at 80% of one-repetition maximum of the exercises in randomized order. Results were analyzed with a two-way analysis of variance and a Bonferroni post hoc test. The position × exercise interaction was significantly different for rectus abdominis (P = 0.016), but not for external oblique (P = 0.100) and erector spinae (P = 0.151). The following EMG results were observed: For rectus abdominis: ~49% lower in seated bilateral versus unilateral (P < 0.001), similar in standing bilateral versus unilateral (P = 0.408), ~81% lower in bilateral seated versus standing (P < 0.001), ~59% lower in unilateral seated versus standing (P < 0.001); For external oblique: ~81% lower in seated bilateral versus unilateral (P < 0.001), ~68% lower in standing bilateral than unilateral (P < 0.001), ~58% lower in bilateral seated versus standing (P < 0.001), ~28% lower in unilateral seated versus standing (P = 0.002); For erector spinae: similar in seated bilateral versus unilateral (P = 0.737), ~18% lower in standing bilateral versus unilateral (P = 0.001), similar in seated versus standing bilateral (P = 0.480) and unilateral (P = 0.690). In conclusion, to enhance neuromuscular activation of the superficial core muscles, standing exercises should be used instead of seated exercises, and unilateral exercises should be used instead of bilateral exercises.
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Registered trials
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