Effect of height of feet on trunk muscle activity and pelvic tilt angle during prone bridge exercises

BACKGROUND: The prone bridge is one of core stability exercises, which is important to maintain pelvic position as neutral. Elevated feet position is simple way to increase the external load, but have not been investigated the effect for muscle activity and pelvic position. OBJECTIVE: Present study is to investigate the effect of feet height on muscle activity and pelvic tilt angle during the prone bridge exercise. METHOD: Surface electromyographic responses of the rectus abdominis, internal oblique, erector spinae, serratus anterior, and pelvic anterior tilt angles were investigated during the prone bridge exercise with step boxes of different heights under the feet. A total of 18 healthy, physically active female volunteers completed the normal prone bridge exercise (NP), prone bridge exercise with a low step box (PL), and prone bridge exercise with a high step box (PH). RESULTS: The PL condition caused significant increases in the activity of the internal oblique muscles compared with the NP condition (P CONCLUSION: The high step box increased the pelvic anterior tilt angle with no additional abdominal muscle activity. The prone bridge exercise could be effective by adopting horizontal position between upper and lower body, compared to inclined lower body and general position.