EMG Doesn’t Always Show How Hard Muscles Are Working
Reconsidering Exercise Selection with EMG: Poor Agreement between Ranking Hip Exercises with Gluteal EMG and Muscle Force.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Scientists wanted to see if measuring muscle electricity (EMG) tells us how much force a muscle is actually producing during hip exercises. They tested this in young female soccer players doing common glute exercises.
Surprising Findings
EMG explains only 5% of gluteus maximus force across exercises
It contradicts widespread belief in fitness science that high EMG = effective exercise, especially for glute training which heavily relies on EMG data.
Practical Takeaways
Don’t rely solely on EMG-based exercise rankings when designing strength or rehab programs—consider biomechanical load instead.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Scientists wanted to see if measuring muscle electricity (EMG) tells us how much force a muscle is actually producing during hip exercises. They tested this in young female soccer players doing common glute exercises.
Surprising Findings
EMG explains only 5% of gluteus maximus force across exercises
It contradicts widespread belief in fitness science that high EMG = effective exercise, especially for glute training which heavily relies on EMG data.
Practical Takeaways
Don’t rely solely on EMG-based exercise rankings when designing strength or rehab programs—consider biomechanical load instead.
Publication
Journal
Medicine and science in sports and exercise
Year
2025
Authors
T. Collings, Matthew N. Bourne, R. Barrett, E. Meinders, B. Gonçalves, A. Shield, Laura E Diamond
Related Content
Claims (5)
To really know how much each muscle is being worked during the week, we should count exercise volume based on how much each move actually hits that muscle — not just how many sets and reps you do.
For female soccer players, how much your glutes 'light up' on an EMG machine during exercises doesn't necessarily match how much force they're actually producing — so the electrical signal might not tell the full story.
When you do hip exercises, how hard your gluteus medius muscle is working can only be partly guessed by measuring its electrical activity — it explains just under 1 in 5 parts of the actual force, so the signal doesn’t tell the whole story.
Your muscle's electrical activity (measured by EMG) can predict most of how hard your butt muscles are working — especially when comparing the same person doing similar exercises.
Measuring muscle activity with EMG doesn't tell us much about how much actual force the glute muscle is producing during different hip exercises — it only explains a tiny part of the difference, so it's not a reliable way to compare which exercises are harder on the muscle.