title: Do sweep rowers symmetrically activate their low back muscles during indoor rowing?
abstract: This study investigates whether sweep rowers activate their low back muscles asymmetrically when exercising on a rowing ergometer. Given that indoor rowing imposes equal loading demands to left and right back muscles, any side differences in activation are expected to reflect asymmetric adaptations resulting from sweep rowing. In addition to trunk kinematics, surface electromyograms (EMGs) were sampled from multiple skin locations along the lumbar spine of six elite, sweep rowers. The distribution of EMG amplitude along the spine was averaged across strokes and compared between sides. Key results indicate a significant effect of trunk side on EMG amplitude and on the low back region where EMG amplitude was greatest. Such side differences were unlikely because of trunk lateral inclination and rotation, which were smaller than 5° for all rowers tested. Moreover, asymmetries manifested differently between participants; there was not a clear predominance of greater EMG amplitude toward the right/left side in portside/starboard rowers. These results suggest that (a) even during indoor rowing, sweep rowers activate asymmetrically their low back muscles; (b) factors other than rowing side might be associated with low back asymmetries; (c) spatial distribution of surface EMG amplitude is sensitive to bilateral changes in back muscles' activation.
authors.affiliation: Scuola Universitaria Interfacoltà di Scienze Motorie, Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche, Università degli Studi di Torino, Torino, Italy.|Società Canottieri ARMIDA, Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: N G
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: Readi
authors.affiliation: Scuola Universitaria Interfacoltà di Scienze Motorie, Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche, Università degli Studi di Torino, Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Rosso
authors.affiliation: Scuola Universitaria Interfacoltà di Scienze Motorie, Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche, Università degli Studi di Torino, Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rainoldi
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio di Ingegneria del Sistema Neuromuscolare (LISiN), Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy.|Escola de Educação Física e Desportos, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: T M M
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6239-7301
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Vieira
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D064131:Back Muscles / Q000502:physiology*; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D004576:Electromyography; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology*; D005080:Exercise Test; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008161:Lumbosacral Region; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology; D013177:Sports / Q000502:physiology*; D050151:Subcutaneous Fat / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D014463:Ultrasonography; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Spine; erector spinae muscle; muscle activation; surface electromyogram