The Effects of Support Surface Change and Upper Arm Resistance Exercise on Abdominal Muscle Thickness Seo Jun-Seok1, Heo Bo-Kyung1, Lee Keon-Cheol2,*, Lee Dong-Yeop3 1Student, Dept. of Physical Therapy, Kyungnam College of Information & Technology, Korea 2Professor, Dept. of Physical Therapy, Kyungnam College of Information & Technology, Korea 3Dept. of Physical Therapy, Sunmoon University, Korea *Corresponding Author: Dong-Yeop Lee, Associate professor, Department of Physical Therapy, Sunmoon university, Korea, Email: kan717@hanmail.net
Online published on 2 February, 2019. Abstract Background/Objectives This study investigated the effects of various upper arm resistance exercise on abdominal muscle thickness during bridging posture on stable and unstable surfaces. Method/Statistical analysis This study was performed on 30 normal adults (6 men and 24 women). During the performance of the bridge exercise accompanied with BOSU ball to give variations of surface. Resistance exercises focusing on the upper extremities using medicine balls, pilates circle and weight bar were practiced to measure the thickness of muscles by using ultrasound. Independent t-test and one-way ANOVA were used to compare the thickness of the abdominal muscles with the stable and unstable support surface according to the type of upper arm resistance exercise. Findings There was a significant difference in abdominal muscle thickness between the stable and unstable support surface groups without upper arm resistance exercise (p<.05). However, there was no significant difference in abdominal muscle thickness between the stable and unstable support surface groups with upper arm resistance exercise (p>.05). The result of this study showed that all of rectus abdominis(RA), internal oblique(RO), external oblique(EO) and transverse abdominis(TrA)were more thickened at the stable supporting surface than that of the unstable supporting surface. The resistance exercise using pilates circle at the stable supporting surface resulted in thicker muscle in rectus abdominis and external oblique. The resistance exercise using a weight bar resulted in significant change in both internal oblique and transverse abdominis. Improvements/Applications The resistance exercise of the arm using various tools and the change of the supporting surface affect the increase of abdominal muscle thickness. In addition, Upper arm resistance exercise may be an effective alternative method for those who cannot apply an unstable support surface to increase the thickness of abdominal muscles. Top Keywords Abdominal muscle, Bridging posture, Muscle thickness, Resistance exercise, Support surface. Top |