The muscle activation of the erector spinae during hyperextension with and without the pelvis restrained

A randomized trial to consider the effect of Romanian deadlift exercise on the development of lumbar extension strength

“…Indeed, researchers have reported significantly greater activation of the lumbar multifidus during back extension where the pelvis was stabilized (San Juan, Yaggie, Levy, Mooney, Udermann & Mayer, 2005), adding that muscle activation of the gluteus maximus and biceps femoris were decreased where the pelvis was restrained (Da Silva, Lariviere, Arsenault, Nadeau, & Plamondon, 2009). In contrast, another study found greater activation of the erector spinae muscles in an unrestrained condition (Benson, Smith, & Bybee, 2002), although participants in this study subjectively reported greater effort in the lumbar muscles where the pelvis was restrained.…”

A review of the specificity of exercises designed for conditioning the lumbar extensors

“…Indeed, even early analysis of lumbar extensor activation during exercise suggested that hyperextension from the prone position produced greatest activation 62. Conversely, it has also been shown that when a form of pelvic restraint is used during roman chair TEX, lumbar extensor activation is significantly less than when unrestrained 63. This occurred despite participants’ subjective perceptions of muscular fatigue being more significantly localised to the lumbar extensors when restraints were used.…”

“…Although different treatments of EMG signal data render difficulty in comparing between studies, the activation levels measured for all of the exercises examined ranged from <5% to ∼150% for values normalised to MVC, with between exercise mode comparisons in studies showing differences ranging from ∼3% to ∼80%. Evidently there are some comparative studies showing clearly significantly greater activation of the lumbar extensors utilising some approaches over others (ie, greater than 15% difference for bench or ball-based TEX compared to other floor/ball-based exercises,56 59 deadlift compared to other free weight exercises,65 67 hip extension or TEX based floor exercises compared to other floor exercises70–72 and ILEX compared to machine based TEX27 28), however this is variable between other comparative studies of similar exercises 63 69 74 75. Thus, it is not particularly clear whether all the differences noted can arguably be used to prescribe exercises for conditioning the lumbar extensors.…”

Effect of pelvic stabilization and hip position on trunk extensor activity during back extension exercises on a roman chair

“…Our results showed, for both genders, that pelvic stabilization did not increase the activity of the back muscles during the RC exercise. As stated earlier, only one study (21) evaluated the effect of pelvic stabilization during lumbar extension in an RC exercise. Although the authors did not balance the RC conditions and did not record the EMG activity of the hip extensors, the back muscles showed comparable activation between the PUR and PR conditions.…”

“…However, this might only apply in machines (in a sitting posture) and be more difficult to achieve in a RC where the lower limbs are not well stabilized, which would have limited value in influencing the powerful hip extensors. Only one study has evaluated the effect of pelvic stabilization in an RC device (21), but the experimental conditions were not counter-balanced and the EMG of the hip extensors was not recorded. So far, none of these variants of the RC (changing hip position, pelvic stabilization) have been shown to be better than another in maximizing the activity of back muscles while minimizing the activity of hip extensors during an RC exercise (specificity principle).…”