Using weights in abdominal exercises: electromyography response of the Rectus Abdominis and Rectus Femoris muscles

Among persons who do regular exercises, many include abdominal exercises in their customary routine. For this, there are a growing variety of movements being created for strengthening the abdominal muscles. This work aims to know, through electromyography analysis, the action potencies of the supra and infra umbilical of the Rectus Abdominis and Rectus Femoris muscles during the execution of abdominal exercises with and without the addition of weights. Lying on the backside, seven flexing movements of the trunk--one without weight, three with 2 Kg on the neck, elbow and chest and three with 4 Kg on the same points--were executed. Nine female university students between 18 and 23 years old participated in the study. Surface electrodes were fixed to the supra and infra umbilical areas of the Rectus Abdominis and Rectus Femoris muscles. The results showed that the utilization of weights in the abdominal exercises did not appear to be effective for the Rectus Abdominis muscle since greater action potencies were only verified in the Rectus Femoris muscle. We concluded that the differences observed in the RMS were not relevant to the point of indicating the utilization of weights to improve abdominal exercises because greater action potencies were only observed in the Rectus Femoris muscle.