Surface Electromyography Measurements of Dorsal Muscle Cross-activation in Therapeutic Climbing

Therapeutic climbing has become more and more popular as a complementation to conventional physiotherapy and rehabilitation. It finds application in different fields of rehabilitation with promising outcomes, verified within several clinical trials. This study aimed to investigate the muscle activation of 14 dorsal leg and trunk muscles during a therapeutic climbing exercise. Two male subjects with similar physical condition participated in the study and were instructed to perform a therapeutic climbing exercise. This exercise is a commonly used therapeutic climbing exercise against lower back pain and supposedly improves overall trunk stability. This exercise is commonly used in therapeutic climbing against lower back pain and to supposedly improve overall trunk stability. During the exercise muscle activation was captured using wireless surface electromyography. The assumption was made that after loosening one hand from the wall the subjects need to create an asymmetric cross-activation of the dorsal muscles to prevent the body from tilting off the wall like a door. Therefore it was hypothesized that this therapeutic climbing exercise can cause cross-activation of dorsal muscles for improved trunk stability. Although showing individual differences, a cross-activation was verified for both subjects.