The 'Bench Rite' Orthosis Decreases Cervical Muscle Activation During the Bench Press

There is little data available that examines the activation of the cervical paraspinal muscles that occurs during the bench press. It is intuitive that activation of these muscles may lead to increased loads across the cervical spine and may increase the risk of injury to the intervertebral disks of the cervical spine.

The hypothesis of this study is that by supporting the cervical spine with the "Bench Rite" cervical spine orthosis, there will be less muscular activation of the cervical paraspinal muscles as determined by electromyography when performing the bench press.

Comparative electromyographic study - Level of evidence III (case-control study).

Fifteen healthy subjects performed two sets (with and without the cervical orthosis) of five repetitions of a 60 percent maximum repetition on the bench press for each muscle group tested (pectoralis major, deltoid, C5 paraspinal, trapezius). Electromyography was used to determine the maximum isometric contraction and concentric contraction of each muscle with and without the cervical orthosis. The concentric contraction of each muscle group was reported as a percentage of maximum voluntary isometric contraction.

The use of the "Bench Rite" cervical spine orthosis resulted in a statistically significant decrease in muscle activation in the C5 paraspinal (37 percent; p=0.0001) and deltoid muscles (9.8 percent; p=0.001) and a significant increase in trapezius muscle activation (9.3 percent; p=0.03). No differences were found in muscle activation of the pectoralis major with or without the use of the cervical spine orthosis (0.8 percent; p=0.90).

Weightlifters may consider utilizing the "Bench Rite" cervical orthosis while performing the bench press to decrease cervical paraspinal muscle activation without impacting the muscle activation of the pectoralis major.