External oblique muscle activation during exercise can be normalized to a maximum contraction.
What is it about?
Normalization methods including side-lying lateral trunk flexion have been previously used to establish the external oblique's maximum isometric contraction. The roman chair lateral trunk flexion has been proposed as an alternative normalization method. This paper compares the two normalization methods and their use during core exercise.
Why is it important?
Our findings show the side-lying trunk flexion method produced no values above 100% MVIC while the roman chair method produced 7 values above 100% MVIC. The last 5 seconds of the torso elevated side plank resulted in a 57% higher average %MVIC with roman chair normalization compared to the side-lying method. The side-lying table technique likely provides the optimal methodology of external oblique %MVIC determination.