Manual Therapy 15 (2010) 502e507

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Manual Therapy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/math

Original article

Deep and superficial abdominal muscle activation during trunk stabilization

exercises with and without instruction to hollow
Anna Bjerkefors a, b, *, Maria M. Ekblom a, b, Karin Josefsson a, Alf Thorstensson a, b
a
The Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences (GIH), Box 5626, SE-114 86 Stockholm, Sweden
b
Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The deepest muscle of the human ventro-lateral abdominal wall, the Transversus Abdominis (TrA), has
Received 4 September 2009 been ascribed a specific role in spine stabilization, which has motivated special core stability exercises
Received in revised form and hollowing instruction to specifically involve this muscle. The purpose here was to evaluate the levels
31 March 2010
of activation of the TrA and the superficial Rectus Abdominis (RA) muscles during five common stabi-
Accepted 7 May 2010
lization exercises performed in supine, bridging and four-point kneeling positions, with and without
instruction to hollow, i.e. to continuously pull the lower part of the abdomen towards the spine. Nine
Keywords:
habitually active women participated and muscle activity was recorded bilaterally from TrA and RA with
Hollowing
Intramuscular electromyography
intramuscular fine-wire electrodes introduced under the guidance of ultrasound. Results showed that
Transversus abdominis subjects were able to selectively increase the activation of the TrA, isolated from the RA, with the specific
Training instruction to hollow and that side differences in the amplitude of TrA activity, related to the asymmetry
of the exercises, remained even after the instruction to hollow. The exercises investigated caused levels of
TrA activation from 4 to 43% of that during maximal effort and can thus be used clinically to grade the
load on the TrA when designing programs aiming at training that muscle.
Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction and mass. In that perspective, documentation of the actual acti-

Specific training of the innermost abdominal muscle, the
Transversus Abdominis (TrA), has been prompted by experi-
mental findings of its involvement in unloading of the spine
(Hodges et al., 2001), anticipatory postural control (Hodges and
Richardson, 1997) and intersegmental stabilization of the spine
(Hodges et al., 2003). Exercises intended to specifically involve
the TrA in isolation from the superficial abdominal muscles have
been presented (Richardson and Jull, 1995). Using intramuscular
electrodes, Urquhart et al. (2005) reported that even after
a relatively brief instruction to hollow, i.e. to pull the lower
abdominal wall inwards in a supine position, without pelvic
tilting, it was possible to produce isolated activation of TrA. In
recent training studies, abdominal hollowing involving about 5%
activation of TrA was performed, attempting to improve the
coordination pattern of the TrA muscle (Tsao and Hodges, 2007,
2008). This level of activation is considerably lower than those
generally considered to be required for gains in muscle strength
* Corresponding author. Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences (GIH),
Biomechanics and Motor Control Laboratory, Box 5626, SE-114 86 Stockholm,
Sweden. Tel.: þ46 8 402 22 39; fax: þ46 8 402 22 87.
E-mail address: anna.bjerkefors@gih.se (A. Bjerkefors).
vation levels present during commonly used training exercises
would seem valuable.
Several of the exercises routinely used to improve core stability,
i.e. to support the spine against buckling under load, involve an
unsupported pelvis or upper trunk, e.g. trunk bridging exercises
and exercises in four-point kneeling. A challenge in terms of
asymmetric loading is often introduced by lifting a limb in these
positions, inducing a need to resist a twisting movement of the
trunk. While a systematic investigation of TrA activation levels
based on intramuscular recordings in such exercises is lacking,
a few studies using surface EMG placed over the oblique abdominal
muscles have been presented. Stevens et al. (2006, 2007) reported
abdominal muscle activation levels of 20e30% of maximum, and
found higher relative activation of Obliquus Internus (OI) than
Obliquus Externus (OE) on the right side during bridging with right
leg lift and vice versa during four-point kneeling with right leg lift.
By adding abdominal hollowing to such exercises, a selective
increase could be demonstrated in level of EMG recorded by surface
electrodes placed over the lower abdomen, presumably picking up
activity mainly from OI and, possibly some from TrA (Beith et al.,
2001; Stevens et al., 2007; Chanthapetch et al., 2009). These find-
ings suggest that combinations of core stability exercises with or
without concurrent hollowing may be used clinically to grade the

1356-689X/$ e see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.math.2010.05.006
 A. Bjerkefors et al. / Manual Therapy 15 (2010) 502e507 503

load on the different abdominal muscles when designing training
and rehabilitation programs. However, to be able to make any
conclusions about the involvement of TrA, experiments need to be
performed with intramuscular EMG recordings.
The purpose of this study was to use intramuscular electrodes to
investigate (1) the level of activation bilaterally in the TrA and
Rectus Abdominis (RA) muscles in common trunk stabilization
exercises performed in different positions, requiring a symmetric or
asymmetric activation of the abdominal muscles to maintain the
posture, and (2) the effects of the instruction to hollow on TrA and
RA activation in these exercises.
2. Methods
2.1. Subjects
Nine habitually active women (27  6 years, 1.73  0.04 m,
66.2  8.9 kg) volunteered to this study. All subjects were in good
health and reported no history of neurological and/or respiratory
diseases and none of them had been in contact with institutional
care for back or neck pathology during the preceding year. All
subjects were given both oral and written information about all
aspects of the study and gave their written consent to participate.
Approval was granted from the regional Ethics Committee.
2.2. Experimental design and procedure
Five different stabilization exercises were investigated
(Fig. 1AeE). Three exercises were executed in supine crook-lying
position (Fig. 1AeC) and two in four-point kneeling position (Fig. 1D
and E). All exercises were performed three consecutive times in the
order A to E in two separate blocks. In the first block, each exercise
was preceded by a detailed verbal explanation by the examiner e
a physiotherapist experienced in exercise prescription for the
abdominal muscles e followed by visual instructions, i.e. pictures of
start and end positions for each exercise were shown. Subjects also
performed one guided trial before each test. The second block was
performed as the first one, but with the following specific addition
to the pre-test instructions: “Breath in and out. Gently and slowly
draw in your lower abdomen below your navel without moving
your upper stomach, back or pelvis” (Urquhart et al., 2005)
resulting in a situation referred to as hollowing (Richardson and
Jull, 1995). Between blocks, subjects practiced to hollow with
instruction and verbal and tactile feedback until they were able to
perform the manoeuvre in a satisfactory manner, as judged by the
examiner. In no case did the instruction last more than 10 min.
All exercises were performed on a 2 cm thick soft rubber mat
placed on the floor. Subjects were barefoot and wore tight clothes.
The final, static, position in all exercises was held for 5 s and the
time interval was indicated by a set beep-signal every second. The
foot and shoulder positions as well as the knee angle were
controlled at the start of each trial. Pauses of 30 s between trials and
60 s between exercises were given. Instruction time between the
two blocks ranged 5e10 min. Resting EMG-values were obtained
during 5 s in relaxed crook-lying before and after each block.
At the end of the experiment, subjects were instructed and
verbally encouraged to produce one repetition of maximal volun-
tary pressurization of the abdominal cavity (“Valsalva manoeuvre”)
for 3e5 s in four different maximal voluntary contraction (MVC)
tasks: I Crook-lying (60 knee angle) while asked to simultaneously
perform maximal voluntary trunk flexion against static resistance
to the shoulders, II Crook-lying, III Bridging with the hips extended
(Fig. 1B), and IV Four-point kneeling with the shoulders, hips and
knees in 90 flexion. In addition, a fifth MVC-task was performed: V
Crook-lying with maximal hollowing.
2.3. Electromyography (EMG)
Muscle activity was recorded bilaterally with intramuscular
EMG from TrA and RA, respectively. Bipolar fine-wire electrodes
(strand diameter 0.079 mm) were constructed from seven-strand
Teflon-coated silver wire (AG7/40T, Leico Industries, Inc., USA). An
electric sensitive region of approximately 2 mm was made at the
end of each wire by carefully removing the Teflon coating. The

Fig. 1. Pictures showing the positions in which the EMG measurements were made during the five different exercises (AeE) investigated. (A) Crook-lying with right leg lifted,
supine, straight leg, heel 10 cm above the floor and left knee in 60 flexion, (B) bridging, supine, pelvis lifted to straight hip joint from a starting position with 60 flexion at the
knees, (C) bridging with right leg lift, i.e. a combination of A and B, (D) four-point kneeling with straight right leg lifted horizontally, hip and knee straight, left hip and knee joints at
90 . (E) Four-point kneeling with right leg and left arm lift, as in (D) plus straight left arm lifted horizontally, shoulder and elbow straight.
504 A. Bjerkefors et al. / Manual Therapy 15 (2010) 502e507
uncovered tip was bent back to form a hook and each wire was
threaded through a hypodermic needle (0.7  88 mm and
0.6  60 mm) that was used to insert the intramuscular electrodes
percutaneously to the desired location. The insertion and precise
placement, with an inter-electrode separation of approximately
5 mm, were controlled with real time sonographic imaging (GE,
General Electrics, Logiq 9, USA). The locations were, for TrA: at the
level of the umbilicus and between the lowest point of the rib cage
and the anterior superior iliac spine, and for RA: approximately
3 cm lateral to the umbilicus. Needles were carefully removed prior
to recording, and sonographic imaging was used to ensure that the
wires had remained in their correct locations. A ground surface
electrode was placed over the left acromion. EMG signals were
amplified 1000 times (Myosystem 2000, Noraxon, USA), band pass
filtered 10e1000 Hz, notch-filtered at 50 Hz (NL 125, Digitimer Ltd,
UK), and sampled continuously at 2 kHz (Power, 1401, Cambridge
Electronic Design, UK).
2.4. Data processing
EMG processing was performed off-line using customized scripts
developed within commercially available software (Spike2, Cam-
bridge Electronic Design, UK). Root mean square (RMS) EMG
amplitude was calculated for each muscle during 1 s in the middle
part of the duration of the static end position of each exercise (AeE)
and maximal effort (IeV). The RMS values were exported to Excel
(Microsoft Office, USA) and mean values were calculated for the
three trials of each exercise in each block. Resting EMG was sub-
tracted. EMG amplitudes for each muscle during the exercises (AeE)
were normalized to, and expressed as percent of the highest EMG
observed for that muscle during any of the maximal efforts (IeV).
2.5. Statistics
The statistics was carried out in Statistica 7.1 (StatSoft, USA).
Shapiro-Wilk’s W-test was applied to examine normality in the
distribution of data. Normalized muscle activity during the exer-
cises (AeE) was analysed using a four-way ANOVA with the factors:
muscle (TrA and RA), side (left and right), exercise (AeE), and
instruction (without and with hollowing). Absolute muscle activity
during maximal efforts was analysed using a three-way ANOVA
with the factors: muscle (TrA and RA), side (left and right) and
MVC-task (IeV). If the data did not conform to the assumption of
sphericity, the p-values were GreenhouseeGeisser corrected.
a 80
TrA Left
70
60
50
EMG (%)
40
30
20
10
0 0
A B C D
Exercise
Fig. 2. Mean values (þ1SD) of relative EMG amplitudes (in % of the highest observed in the MVC-tasks) for Transversus Abdominis (TrA) (a) on the left side and (b) on the right side,
without instruction to hollow (open bars) and with instruction to hollow (hatched bars) during the five exercises (AeE) investigated. (A) Supine with right leg lift, (B) bridging, (C)
bridging with right leg lift, (D) four-point kneeling with right leg lift, and (E) four-point kneeling with right leg lift and left arm lift.
Significant interaction effects were analysed further using the
Tukey HSD post hoc test. Level of significance was set to P < 0.05
and a tendency was considered if 0.1 > P > 0.05.
3. Results
3.1. Exercises (AeE)
A significant interaction was present between instruction and
muscle (F1,8 ¼ 5.85, P ¼ 0.042), and there was a tendency for a 4-
way interaction between instruction, muscle, side and exercise
(F4,32 ¼ 2.26, P ¼ 0.084). Instruction to hollow caused a significant
increase in EMG levels of TrA (Fig. 2), but not of RA (Fig. 3). With
instruction to hollow similar increases in TrA EMG amplitudes were
present on both sides, except for exercise C (bridging with right leg
lift), where activation only increased on the left side (Fig. 4). The
mean levels of activation without instruction to hollow in the five
exercises (AeE) ranged: 4e33% in TrA left, 6e36% in TrA right
(Fig. 2), 1e5% in RA left, and 1e3% in RA right (Fig. 3), respectively.
With the added instruction to hollow the corresponding ranges of
mean levels of EMG amplitude were: 17e43% in TrA left, 17e35% in
TrA right (Fig. 2), 3e7% in RA left, and 1e5% in RA right (Fig. 3),
respectively.
There was a significant interaction between muscle, side and
exercise (F4,32 ¼ 7.20, P ¼ 0.007). Both with and without instruc-
tions, the highest TrA amplitudes on the left side were recorded in
exercise D (four-point kneeling with right leg lift) and E (four-point
kneeling with right leg and left arm lift), being significantly higher
compared to exercise A (crook-lying with right leg lift), B (bridging)
and C (bridging with right leg lift) (Fig. 2). On the right side, the
highest EMG level in TrA without instruction was observed in
exercise C (bridging with right leg lift), being significantly higher
compared to all other exercises (Fig. 2). With instruction, TrA EMG
in exercise C (bridging with right leg lift) was significantly higher
than in exercises A (crook-lying with right leg lift) and B (bridging).
For RA, no significant differences were seen in EMG amplitude
between sides or exercises (Fig. 3).
Elevating the pelvis with the right leg lifted (exercise C versus A)
was accompanied by a significant increase of the activation of TrA
on the right side (Fig. 2). Lifting the right leg in the bridging position
(exercise C versus B) caused a significant increase of TrA on the right
side (Fig. 2). Lifting the left arm in the four-point kneeling position
with the right leg lifted (exercise E versus D) did not result in any
significant change in TrA activation on either side (Fig. 2).
b 80
TrA Right
Without instruction
With instruction
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
E A B C D E
Exercise
 A. Bjerkefors et al. / Manual Therapy 15 (2010) 502e507 505

a 80
RA Left
b 80
RA Right Without instruction
With instruction
70 70

60 60

50 50
EMG (%)

40 40

30 30

20 20

10 10

0 0
A B C D E A B C D E
Exercise Exercise

Fig. 3. Mean values (þ1SD) of relative EMG amplitudes (in % of the highest observed in the MVC-tasks) for Rectus Abdominis (RA) (a) on the left side and (b) on the right side,
without instruction to hollow (open bars) and with instruction to hollow (hatched bars) during the five exercises (AeE) investigated. (A) Supine with right leg lift, (B) bridging, (C)
bridging with right leg lift, (D) four-point kneeling with right leg lift, and (E) four-point kneeling with right leg lift and left arm lift.

There were no significant differences between sides for TrA in 4. Discussion

exercise A (crook-lying with right leg lift) and B (bridging) (Fig. 4). In
exercise C (bridging with right leg lift), the EMG level in TrA was
significantly higher on the right than on the left side, whereas the
reverse was true for exercise D (four-point kneeling with right leg lift)
and E (four-point kneeling with right leg and left arm lift) (Fig. 4).
3.2. Maximal efforts (IeV)
A significant interaction was present between muscle and MVC-
task (F4,32 ¼ 28.95). In crook-lying positions (I, II and V), higher
EMG-values were present for task I (Valsalva plus attempted
maximal voluntary trunk flexion) than task II (just Valsalva) and V
(maximal hollowing), whereas there was no significant difference
in EMG amplitude during Valsalva manoeuvres between MVC-
tasks II (crook-lying), III (bridging) and IV (four-point kneeling)
(Fig. 5).
The highest individual EMG-values during maximal efforts for
TrA were observed in crook-lying with Valsalva and attempted trunk
flexion (I, n ¼ 5), in bridging with Valsalva (III, n ¼ 2), in four-point
kneeling with Valsalva (IV, n ¼ 1), and in crook-lying with hollowing
(V, n ¼ 1). For RA the highest activation was seen in crook-lying with
Valsalva and attempted trunk flexion (I) for all subjects (n ¼ 9).
4.1. Main findings
This study presents bilateral activation levels obtained with
intramuscular fine-wire EMG from one deep, TrA, and one super-
ficial, RA, abdominal muscle in exercises commonly used clinically.
By varying exercise and by adding the instruction to hollow a wide
range of activation levels could be obtained for TrA (4e43% of that
during MVC), whereas RA did not show a similar variation (1e7%).
Furthermore, as has earlier been demonstrated in other situations,
it was shown, firstly, that the current group of healthy subjects
were able to use the abdominal hollowing technique to selectively
increase the activation of the TrA, in excess of the activation needed
for the executing the exercises per se, and, secondly, that the level
of TrA, but not RA activation differed between sides depending on
the degree of asymmetry of the exercise.
4.2. Bilateral activation levels during exercises
The activation of the TrA showed differences in activation level
between the left and right side in the asymmetric exercises C
(bridging with right leg lift), D (four-point kneeling with right leg

a 80
TrA without instruction Left b 80 TrA with instruction
Left
Right Right
70 70

60 60

50 50
EMG (%)

40 40

30 30

20 20

10 10

0 0
A B C D E A B C D E
Exercise Exercise

Fig. 4. Mean values (þ1SD) of relative EMG amplitudes (in % of the highest observed in the MVC-tasks) for TrA (a) without instruction and (b) with instruction, on the left side (open
bars) and on the right side (squared bars) during the five exercises (AeE) investigated. (A) Supine with right leg lift, (B) bridging, (C) bridging with right leg lift, (D) four-point
kneeling with right leg lift, and (E) four-point kneeling with right leg lift and left arm lift.
506 A. Bjerkefors et al. / Manual Therapy 15 (2010) 502e507
a 1.4 TrA
1.2
1.0
EMG (mV)
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
I II III IV
MVC-task
Fig. 5. Mean values (þ1SD) of absolute EMG amplitudes (in mV) for (a) TrA and (b) RA on the left (open bars) and right side (black bars) during the 5 maximal efforts (MVC-tasks
IeV) investigated: I Crook-lying (60 knee angle) with Valsalva plus a maximal voluntary trunk flexion against static resistance, II Crook-lying (60 knee angle) with Valsalva, III
Bridging with Valsalva, IV Four-point kneeling with Valsalva, V Crook-lying (60 knee angle) with maximal hollowing.
lift) and E (four-point kneeling with right leg and left arm lift).
Although the side differences were slightly smaller in all exercises
after instruction to hollow, they remained significant. This was
contrary to expectation, based on the hypotheses that TrA would be
symmetrically activated in the exercises to cause a general, direc-
tion independent, stabilization of the spine, and that an instruction
to hollow would, if anything, increase the degree of symmetry
between sides. On the other hand, side differences in activation of
TrA have been observed before in trunk twisting tasks (Cresswell
et al., 1992) and some asymmetric training exercises (Urquhart
and Hodges, 2005). This suggests that TrA might have a mechan-
ical role in counteracting asymmetric loading of the pelvis and
trunk, e.g. unilateral leg lifting in certain positions. Thus, elevating
the pelvis with the right leg lifted, i.e. going from Exercise A (crook-
lying with right leg lift) to C (bridging with right leg lift), was
accompanied by a selective increase of TrA activation on the right
side. This indicates that TrA is not just involved in lifting the leg per
se, but in counteracting the load transmitted from the leg to an
instable pelvis. The reversed activation pattern of TrA in the four-
point kneeling exercises (D and E), where the unilateral leg lift
tends to rotate the pelvis in the opposite direction, supports the
interpretation of a role for TrA in opposing a load torque in the
ipsilateral direction. These findings are in line with earlier findings
from studies on trunk (Cresswell et al., 1992; Juker et al., 1998) and
pelvis (Urquhart and Hodges, 2005) rotation.
To understand more about the function of TrA in the exercises
associated with asymmetric loading, concurrent recording of the
oblique abdominal muscles might have been helpful. Cresswell et al.
(1992) reported that greater TrA and OI EMG activity was observed
on the side to which the trunk was rotated, whereas greater OE
activity was found on the contralateral side. In line with this, Stevens
et al. (2006, 2007) found higher IO:OE surface EMG ratios on the
right side during bridging with right leg lift, and lower IO:OE surface
EMG ratios on the right side during four-point kneeling with right
leg lift. Based on findings from this and previous studies it seems as if
TrA is activated in synergy with muscles that are able to rotate the
spine, its mechanical role in this context is, however, still obscure,
considering its transverse fibre direction.
4.3. Effects of instruction to hollow
The results demonstrated that in healthy subjects it is possible,
by a relatively short-term specific instruction to hollow, to increase
the activation of the deepest muscle of the ventro-lateral
Left
b 1.4 RA Right
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
V I II III IV V
MVC-task
abdominal wall, the TrA, with, on the average, as much as 3 times
depending on the exercise, while the activation of RA remains
unchanged at low levels. Interestingly, the increase in TrA EMG was
of similar absolute magnitude (8e19% of MVC) irrespective of
exercise, and thus also of level of activation of TrA in the non-hol-
lowing condition, which varied between 4e36% of MVC. The only
exception was the right TrA activation in the bridging position with
right leg lift (exercise C), where the already high activation level
(36%) remained unchanged even after the instruction to hollow.
Our finding of an increase in TrA activation independent of RA is
in accordance with the intramuscular EMG-study by Urquhart et al.
(2005), who showed that an inward movement of the lower part of
the abdomen (hollowing) in crook-lying was the exercise that most
selectively activated the TrA, in comparison with hollowing in
a prone position, pelvic tilting, abdominal bracing and simulta-
neous inward movement of the upper and lower parts of the
abdomen. Their finding of less selective activation during hollow-
ing in prone position with unsupported abdomen, i.e. a similar, but
not identical, position to our four-point kneeling, could be due to
differences in levels of effort between studies, their “mild” effort
corresponding to only 3e7% of maximal TrA EMG.
In a recent study (Chanthapetch et al., 2009), surface electrodes
were used in an attempt to study the effects of instruction to hollow
on abdominal muscle activation in four positions, crook lying,
prone lying, four-point kneeling and wall support standing. The
results demonstrated that EMG recorded with the surface elec-
trodes placed over the lower part of the OI muscle, possibly picking
up activity also from TrA, showed selective activation in all four
positions with the hollowing instruction. EMG was not recorded in
the un-instructed situation, but it is worth noticing that the levels
of activation in the instructed situation were similar to those
obtained here, mean values for “TrA/OI” ranging 19e28% and RA
1e2% of MVC. With a similar approach using surface electrodes,
Beith et al. (2001) reported that hollowing caused a selective
increase of EMG from the electrodes placed over OI (35% of MVC in
prone lying and 19% in four-point kneeling), whereas EMG of the
more superficial muscle, OE, remained below 10% of MVC; activa-
tion of RA was recordable only from 2 of their 20 subjects.
4.4. Muscle activation in maximal voluntary efforts
In the present study the intention was to normalize the EMG
obtained during the exercises to that recorded during a maximal
voluntary static trunk flexion task combined with a Valsalva
 A. Bjerkefors et al. / Manual Therapy 15 (2010) 502e507
manoeuvre, since that has earlier been shown to result in the
highest values on a group level, both for TrA and RA (Cresswell
et al., 1992). The effect of adding resistance to the Valsalva
manoeuvre was, however, much greater for RA than for TrA acti-
vation. Similar results were obtained here. Combined Valsalva and
attempted trunk flexion were accompanied by the highest group
mean EMG levels in both RA and TrA, but in four of the nine indi-
vidual cases the highest TrA EMG was reached in various other
exercise specific positions. It is noteworthy that the average TrA
EMG attained in maximal hollowing did not differ from that
recorded during the Valsalva manoeuvres in any of the MVC-
positions. We chose to relate the EMG recorded during exercises to
the highest individual EMG achieved in any of the maximal efforts.
Interestingly, there were no side differences in absolute EMG
recorded during the maximal efforts, which tends to strengthen the
validity of the recording technique.
5. Conclusions
After a brief period of hollowing instruction, healthy individ-
uals were able to activate their deepest abdominal muscle, TrA,
independent of the most superficial muscle, the RA. They could
also integrate this increased TrA activation into basic stabilization
exercises performed in supine, bridging and four-point kneeling
positions. However, the hollowing did not affect the side differ-
ences in TrA activation associated with exercises causing asym-
metric loading of the pelvis. The exercises investigated caused
levels of TrA activation from 4 to 43% of that during maximal effort
and can thus be used clinically by the therapist to grade the load
on the TrA when designing programs aiming at training that
muscle.
Acknowledgements
Financial support from the Swedish Centre of Sport Research
is gratefully acknowledged. Special thanks are due to Fredrik
507
Tinmark, MSc, and Louise Welin, MSc, for computational
assistance.
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