Objective: The purpose of the current study was to quantitatively examine the muscle activations of 3 common isometric core exercises (abdominal bridge, single-leg abdominal bridge, and superman) along with a newly introduced isometric exercise (flying squirrel) and determine if muscle activations differed among the exercises.
Design: The design was a comparison study.
Setting: An athletic training classroom laboratory was where all data collections occurred.
Participants: Thirty healthy collegiate graduate students (age, 23.4 ± 1.4 year; height, 171.3 ± 10.3 cm; mass, 73.3 ± 16.2 kg), regardless of sex, consented to participate.
Independent variable: The independent variable was the muscle selected.
Main outcome measures: The main outcome measures or dependent variables were the muscle activation reported as percent of maximum voluntary isometric contraction during each exercise.
Results: Results revealed that the multifidi produced the greatest muscle activity in all exercises, and the single-leg abdominal bridge exercise produced greater muscle activation than the general abdominal bridge exercise (P < 0.025).
Conclusions: The findings of this study demonstrate that any of these exercises may be a part of a core stability program. In addition, these findings may be incorporated into an isometric core exercise program to supplement a currently implemented isometric core exercise program.