The comparison of the electromyography activities in the latissimus dorsi and trapezius muscles during two types of strength training

Strengthen the back muscles such as trapezius and latissimus dorsi muscles can be considered as an essential part of any strength training program. The purpose of this study was to compare the electromyography activities in the latissimus dorsi and trapezius muscles during two different types of strength exercises.
Twelve males (age: 23.4±3.19 years, weight: 78.5±2.84 kg, height: 179.8±4.28 cm) who were familiar with strength training exercises participated in this quasi-experimental study. Surface electromyography activity of the latissimus dorsi and trapezius (upper, middle and lower portions) muscles were recorded during performing lat pull-down and row cable exercises with different hands positions namely, close, wide and parallel grip. ANOVA with repeated measures was employed for data analyses.
The latissimus dorsi muscle indicated significantly greater electromyography activity during lat pull-down exercise with the wide grip position compared to other positions. All parts of the trapezius muscle showed greater activity during performing row cable exercise in all three hand grip positions in comparison with lat-pull down exercise.
The results indicate that lat pull-down movement using the wide grip hand position could affects the activities of latissimus dorsi muscle whereas, the row cable exercise is more effective for strengthening the trapezius muscle.