The Impact of Leg Width on Muscle Activation and Performance during Push-Up Exercise

• Published in: International Journal of Human Movement and Sports Sciences
• Main Author: Azmi A.M.N.; Nadzalan A.M.; Hussain R.N.J.R.; Ahmad M.F.; Pa W.A.M.W.; Aznan E.I.M.; Vasanthi R.K.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Horizon Research Publishing 2023
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85173740501&doi=10.13189%2fsaj.2023.110607&partnerID=40&md5=8ddb652f4b0ed832cf04467604a552c7

Push-up is an effective bodyweight exercise that can help improve the muscular endurance and strength of the upper limb muscles from health risks. Additionally, there are many ways to perform push-up, and it might cause several changes to its effectiveness. This includes changing the leg conditions such as legs open wide, legs open to shoulder-width, and narrow legs. The study aimed to investigate the effect of leg width during push-ups on muscle activity and performance. A total of 30 trained men (22.36 ± 2.17 years old) participated in the study. Participants were required to perform push-ups in three conditions; i) leg open wide, ii) leg open to shoulder width, and iii) narrow leg. The electromyography (EMG) was used to evaluate the activity of the anterior deltoid (AD), pectoralis major (PM), and triceps brachii (TB) muscles in all conditions. Performance on push-ups was also assessed by the number of repetitions for each condition in this study. The results of one-way repeated measure ANOVA demonstrated that there was a significant difference in the TB during the push-ups between the leg conditions, p <.05. TB was found to be more activated during narrow leg compared to the other two positions. However, there was no significant difference in the PM and AD during the push-ups between the leg conditions, p >.05. Findings also showed that the number of repetitions was significantly lesser while performing with narrow legs. The study concluded that in terms of performance, performing push-ups with a wider leg and a shoulder-width leg will be more advantageous instead of employing a narrow leg position. However, narrow legs would be prescribed if more challenges want to be given to TB. © 2023 by authors, all rights reserved.