The purpose of this study was to compare rectus abdominis and erector spinae muscle activity during isometric (prone bridge [PB] and superman [SM]) and dynamic strengthening exercises (back squat, front squat [FS], and military press). Participants (n = 10, age 21.8 ± 2.6 years; body mass 82.65 ± 10.80 kg, 174.5± 7.2 cm), performed each exercise in a randomized order, using a repeated-measures design. Electromyographical (EMG) activity (sampling at 2,000 Hz) of the rectus abdominis (RA) and the erector spinae (ES) muscles was recorded throughout the duration of the exercises. Intraclass correlations demonstrated the highest levels of reliability for muscle activity during the isometric exercises; however, all exercises demonstrated high level of reliability (r = 0.764-0.998, p ≤ 0.01). The PB demonstrated significantly greater (p < 0.01) RA activity compared to all other exercises. The ES activity was significantly (p < 0.01) greater during the FS (1.010 ± 0.308 root mean square value [RMS (V)]) and SM (0.951 ± 0.217 RMS[V]) and compared to all other exercises, although there was no significant difference (p > 0.05) between the FS and the SM exercise. The PB may be the most suitable exercise for strengthening the RA, compared to dynamic exercises at a low to moderate load, because of a higher level of muscle activity. The FS may be a useful alternative to isometric exercises when strengthening the ES, because it results in slightly higher muscle activity levels when using only a light to moderate load. Because of the dynamic nature of the FS, this may also be more beneficial in transferring to activities of daily living and sporting environments.

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This study aimed to examine performance changes in lacrosse players during a 24-week competitive season (including 22 weeks of periodized resistance training (RT)). Eleven male lacrosse players (age 24.5 ± 4.3 years, height 180.4 ± 5.6 cm, body mass 80.5 ± 5.7 kg, 1 repetition maximum (1RM) back squat (BS) 113.3 ± 17.8 kg, 1RM power clean (PC) 67.2 ± 19.7 kg) participated in this study. Testing included 5-, 10-, 20-m sprints, change of direction (COD), countermovement jump (CMJ), and squat jump (SJ). Testing sessions occurred during week one (T-1), week six (T-2), week 15 (T-3), and week 24 (T-4) of a domestic season. Significant improvements in 20-m sprint performance occurred from T-1 to T-4 (3.04 ± 0.07 seconds, 2.98 ± 0.08 seconds, p = 0.018). Left leg COD tests significantly improved from T-1 to T-2 (3.20 ± 0.15 seconds, 3.10 ± 0.13 seconds, p = 0.005), and T-1 to T-4 (3.20 ± 0.15 seconds, 3.07 ± 0.12 seconds, p = 0.014). Right leg COD tests significantly improved from T-1 to T-4 (3.20 ± 0.15 seconds, 3.08 ± 0.12 seconds, p = 0.002), and T-3 to T-4 (3.20 ± 0.15 seconds, 3.08 ± 0.12 seconds, p = 0.001). SJ height significantly decrease from T-1 to T-2 (38.2 ± 2.63 centimeters, 36.7 ± 2.57 centimeters, p = 0.008). Results demonstrate that improvements in sprint and COD performance can occur during the season in male lacrosse players engaged in periodized RT, therefore coaches and strength and conditioning coaches should focus on development rather than maintenance in season. KeywordsPeriodization; Sprint performance; Power; Monitoring performance [2,3]. Performance measures such as strength, power, and speed are often monitored and assessed to indicate an athlete's current level of physical performance as well as response to a training stimulus. Video analysis of work: rest intervals in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men's lacrosse reported that performance relied primarily on anaerobic metabolism [4], although no direct metabolic measurements were calculated. Research on male club team lacrosse players has indicated that aerobic capacity levels in these athletes are similar to values seen in college basketball, team handball, and ice hockey athletes but less than observed in soccer players [5][6][7]. Similarly, power output in Lacrosse players has also shown to be much lower than that seen for other anaerobic athletes (i.e. football and basketball players) [5,6]. To the author's knowledge, these are the only two studies on male lacrosse players, describing the physiological needs of lacrosse, and detailing performance variables for male club players [4,6].Several studies have documented the physiological and anthropometric characteristics of professional athletes [8][9][10][11] Although these studies have described the physical characteristics of professional athletes and provided insight into the physiological demands of several sports such as soccer [9], lacrosse [7,12] Extensive research has examined the magnitude of change in performance expected over short periods of ...

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