Abstract
The primary purpose of this study was to determine if shoulder extension strength is influenced by elbow position (flexed versus extended). Secondary purposes were to describe the affects of gender, arm dominance, and trial on shoulder extension strength. Thirty subjects (14 men, 16 women) with no pathology of the upper extremities participated. They performed with each extremity in a random order two trials of maximum voluntary shoulder extension with the elbow flexed versus extended. Shoulder strength measurements were obtained with a hand-held dynamometer. A 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 analysis of variance showed that elbow position, gender, arm dominance, and trial all had significant effects. Because shoulder extension strength is greater with the elbow flexed and because subjects with some pathologies are unable to perform shoulder extension with the elbow extended, we recommend the elbow flexed position.