Comparison of Diagonal Shoulder Exercises With and Without Visual Trace

摘要

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of visual trace on shoulder muscle activation during diagonal pattern of exercises. Sixteen healthy male participants volunteered to participate. Design: Repeated-measure design. Setting: Laboratory setting. Participants: Sixteen physically active male participants volunteered to participate. Intervention: Five muscles of the shoulder were investigated during standing performance of diagonal shoulder exercises with and without visual trace. Two patterns of the diagonal exercises were used: diagonal 1 flexion (D1F) and diagonal 2 flexion (D2F). Two-way repeated measures analysis of variance was used, with factors being the presence of visual trace and exercise variations. Main Outcome Measure: Electromyography (EMG). Results: The average muscle activity values of the lower tra-pezius and anterior deltoid were higher with the D2F compared with the D1F (P < .05). The visual trace effect was observed within the serratus anterior, with values significantly greater in exercise with visual trace (P < .05). There was a significant increase of the lower trapezius during the exercise with the visual trace condition compared with the exercise without visual trace, which was only observed during D2F (P < .05). Conclusions: Present results suggest that the D2F exercise pattern is effective for activating lower trapezius and anterior deltoid muscles. The visual trace condition has the additional advantage of activating the scapulothoracic muscle activities depending on the specific pattern of diagonal shoulder exercise.