Muscle activation during unilateral and bilateral biceps curl exercises among trained men

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine and compare the muscle activation during unilateral and bilateral biceps curl exercises. Thirty recreationally active, resistance-trained men (age: 20-23 years old) were recruited as research participants. Participants were asked to perform biceps curl exercise using 85% of their 1RM value unilaterally and bilaterally in a randomized order. Muscle activation of biceps brachii and triceps brachii were obtained during the movement using electromyography method. Repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to compare the muscle activations between both unilateral and bilateral biceps curl. Results showed that no siginificant differences were found on both biceps brachii and triceps brachii muscle activation between both biceps curl methods. Despite our prediction that unilateral exercise create more instability to movement that will cause more muscle activation, it was not found in this study. The simple movement during this bicep curl exercise might be the possible reason of no differences that existed.