Electromyographical analysis of the effect of yoga posture on the trunk muscle activities and its significance: a pilot study

To determine the effects of Yoga posture on the Trunk Muscle Activities by examining the muscle activation patterns in erector spine and rectus abdominis muscles.

Repeated-measures of descriptive study done at Biomechanics laboratory, Biomedical Engineering Department, NIT Raipur.

In this work, participants with no previous experience of Yoga and low back pain (mean age ± SD, 18.0 ± 4.3 y; 10 Males) were recruited.

we recorded muscle activity from erector spine and rectus abdominis muscle for two different yoga poses. By maximum voluntary contraction procedure, mean muscle activity value for two different yoga poses were determined.

There were significant effects of yoga pose on trunk muscle activities. We found significant (p<0.0001) change in trunk muscle activation during cobra pose as compared to boat pose.

From the result we found variations in trunk muscle activities during cobra pose and boat pose. There was significant difference in muscle strength during cobra pose as compared to boat pose; therefore the Cobra pose is effective for strengthening Erector spinae muscle and this pose can be incorporated in yoga training module for addressing low back pain (LBP).