Comparison of Muscle Activation between Traditional, Diamond and Knuckle Push Up Among Trained Men

Abstract

This study was conducted to compare the muscle activation during traditional, diamond and knuckle push up among trained men. Thirty men that had at least one year experience in fitness training involved as participants in this study. Participants were required to perform all the three kinds of push up in a randomised order to avoid bias effects in exercise order. Electromyography method was used to obtain the pectoralis major, triceps brachii and anterior deltoid muscle activation. Muscle activation was reported as percentages of maximal voluntary contraction. One way repeated measure analysis of variances (ANOVA) was conducted to compare the muscle activation between the three push up protocols. Results showed that the muscle activation of pectoralis major and anterior deltoid were highest during traditional push up while being the lowest during diamond push up. However, the muscle activation of triceps brachii was highest during diamond push up and lowest during traditional push up. As the conclusion, we can see that the position and distance of hands on the floor will give effects on the muscle activation. As the implication of this study, coaches, athletes and individuals can manipulate techniques while performing a movement to obtain more muscle activation to specific muscle of interest during a movement.