Skip to main content

Gadget's claims don't hold up under research

Hi there: Hope you had a great weekend. Were you watching the Grey Cup? If you were it's a sad day in Riderville. But getting to the championship game two years in a row is quite a feat when you consider there was a time when making the playoffs or hosting a playoff game was something to get excited about. It's great to see the Riders do well and set new standards and expectations for themselves.But enough about football I want to look at a popular training product. This product is the Perfect Pushup and while it's not necessarily new to the market, the research investigating its claims is new.This device allows the arms to rotate on the handles while performing a push up. And from their website the claims include:* engages more muscles* reduces strain* helps accelerate resultsA very recent study in the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research looked at upper extremity and upper body EMG data to investigate the claims made by the manufacturer. Here's what they did.They measured muscle recruitment at the triceps, chest, serratus and shoulder while performing push ups with three different hand positions. The positions were narrow, standard and wide. Participants performed both regular push ups and those with the device.Here's what they found.* The narrow hand position was most effective at stimulating the triceps and rear deltoid (shoulder) muscles.* The Perfect Pushup did not preferentially enhance muscle recruitment compared to a standard push up.What does this mean?According to this study the investigators dismissed the claims made by the manufacturers of the product. There is no additional benefit in terms of muscle recruitment by using this product compared to a traditional push up.So is there any benefit to using this device at all?One of the other claims of the manufacturers is that the device helps...

Continue reading