Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to examines the acute effect of three bench press exercises on electromyographic activity and blood lactate concentration in male bodybuilders. Fifteen male bodybuilders (age, 24.73 ± 4.01 years) performed weekly barbell, dumbbell, and smith machine bench press exercises 4 sets of 10 RM, rest interval between set 60-90 seconds, in counter-balance order. Blood lactate concentration were recorded before and immediately after exercises. EMG of pectoralis major, anterior deltoid, triceps brachii, and serratus anterior were recorded during each exercises. The optained data were analyzed in term of means and standard deviations, one-way analysis of variance with repeted measures and multiple comparison by the Bonferroni were also employed for statistical significant. The results of this study was indicated that EMG of pectoralis major, anterior deltoid, triceps brachii and surratus anterior in 4thset significantly lesser (p < .05) than 3rdset, 2ndset, and 1stset and blood lactate concentration immediately after exercises were over 10 mmol/l. but the difference did not reach statistical significance. The results showed that bench press exercises by using barbell, dumbbell, and smith machine performed 4 sets of 10 RM can be applied in training for muscle hypertrophy.