Electromyographic Analysis of Muscles Activation during Sit-And-Reach Test Adopting Self-Myofascial Release with Foam Rolling Versus Traditional Warm Up

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the score and surface of the electromyographic (sEMG) activity of erector spinae (ES), lateral belly of gastrocnemious (GL), and semimembranous (SM) muscles during SRT adopting SMR, compared to traditional warm-up.

Methods: Fourteen male college students of certain age and weight (age: 26.8 ± 5.7 years; weight: 75.1 ± 8.2 kg, height: 176.7± 5.5 cm) participated in this study. The participants performed two experimental protocols in two nonconsecutive days: TRAD: Before testing, all subjects performed a 5-minute warm-upon a cycle ergometer followed by three attempts in SRT, with 3-minute rest intervals between; SMR – Firstly, the participants performed Self-Myofascial Release (SMR) for low back, knee flexor, and triceps surae muscles in a randomized design, immediately followed by SRT. The SMR was performed adopting 30-seconds for each leg (knee flexor and triceps surae muscles). The SMR for back muscles held for 1-minute.

Results: No differences were observed in SRT performance between TRAD and SMR. During muscle activity, there was no interaction or significant differences between the protocols.However, significant differences were observed between muscles intra protocols (p=0.028). Muscle activity of ES muscle was
significantly greater than GL (p=0.0001) and SM (p=0.0002) for both protocols, respectively. Similar results were noticed between SM (p=0.001) and GL (p=0.0023) for TRAD and SMR, respectively.

Conclusion: Therefore, foam roller massage applied only for 3 minutes on back and lower body muscles thus, they may have a similar acute warm up effect than cicloergometer, considering SRT
performance.