A systematic review of surface electromyography analyses of the bench press movement task.
BACKGROUND
The bench press exercise (BP) plays an important role in recreational and professional training, in which muscle activity is an important multifactorial phenomenon. The objective of this paper is to systematically review electromyography (EMG) studies performed on the barbell BP exercise to answer the following research questions: Which muscles show the greatest activity during the flat BP? Which changes in muscle activity are related to specific conditions under which the BP movement is performed?


METHODS
PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) in the Cochrane Library were searched through June 10, 2016. A combination of the following search terms was used: bench press, chest press, board press, test, measure, assessment, dynamometer, kinematics and biomechanics. Only original, full-text articles were considered.


RESULTS
The search process resulted in 14 relevant studies that were included in the discussion. The triceps brachii (TB) and pectoralis major (PM) muscles were found to have similar activity during the BP, which was significantly higher than the activity of the anterior deltoid. During the BP movement, muscle activity changes with exercise intensity, velocity of movement, fatigue, mental focus, movement phase and stability conditions, such as bar vibration or unstable surfaces. Under these circumstances, TB is the most common object of activity change.


CONCLUSIONS
PM and TB EMG activity is more dominant and shows greater EMG amplitude than anterior deltoid during the BP. There are six factors that can influence muscle activity during the BP; however, the most important factor is exercise intensity, which interacts with all other factors. The research on muscle activity in the BP has several unresolved areas, such as clearly and strongly defined guidelines to perform EMG measurements (e.g., how to elaborate with surface EMG limits) or guidelines for the use of exact muscle models.
Department of Sport Games, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic.
Petr
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2841-374X
P
Stastny
Department of Sports Theory, The Jerzy Kukuczka Academy of Physical Education, Katowice, Poland.
Artur
A
Gołaś
Department of Sport Games, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic.
Dusan
D
Blazek
Department of Sports Theory, The Jerzy Kukuczka Academy of Physical Education, Katowice, Poland.
Adam
A
Maszczyk
Department of Sports Theory, The Jerzy Kukuczka Academy of Physical Education, Katowice, Poland.
Michał
M
Wilk
Department of Sports Theory, The Jerzy Kukuczka Academy of Physical Education, Katowice, Poland.
Przemysław
P
Pietraszewski
Department of Sport Games, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic.
Miroslav
M
Petr
Faculty of Physical Culture, Palacky University in Olomouc, Olomouc, Czech Republic.
Petr
P
Uhlir
Department of Sports Theory, The Jerzy Kukuczka Academy of Physical Education, Katowice, Poland.
Adam
A
Zając
D004576:Electromyography; D015444:Exercise; D006801:Humans; D009119:Muscle Contraction; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance