The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of respiratory muscle training (RMT) with abdominal drawing-in maneuver (ADIM) on pulmonary function. Twenty-two subjects with restrictive breathing participated in this study. All the subjects were randomly assigned to three groups (7 subjects in RMT group, 7 subjects in RMT with ADIM group, 8 subjects in control group). The first group performed the RMT by using incentive respiratory spirometer (IRS). The second group performed the RMT by using IRS and the ADIM by using a Stabilizer. The exercises were conducted over four days. The pulmonary function was evaluated using the spirometer to measure the force exploratory volume in 1 second () and forced vital capacity (FVC). Measurements were conducted on the first day and the last day. A paired-t test was used for pre-post changes and the change rates in FVC and among each group were investigated by a one-way ANOVA. The findings of the the study were as follows: 1) There were significant differences of FVC and between pre and post in the two training groups (p<.05) 2) There was no significant difference of the change ratio the FVC and between the RMT group and RMT with ADIM group. Therefore, it is concluded that respiratory muscle and ADIM training, combined with two methods of treatment would suggest positive evidence for improving pulmonary function.

The purpose of this study was to investigate intra-rater reliability and determine the validity of electromyography (EMG) measurements to represent muscle activity and ultrasonography (US) to represent muscle thickness during manual muscle testing (MMT) to external abdominal oblique (EO) and lumbar multifidus (MF). Twenty healthy subjects were recruited for this study and asked to perform MMT at differing levels. The subjects' muscle activity using EMG was measured by a ratio to maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) and root mean square (RMS) methods. The subjects' muscle thickness using US was measured by raw muscle thickness and change ratio of thickness to maximum (MVC) or resting condition. In three trials, measurements were performed on each subject by one examiner. The intra-rater reliability of measurements of EMG and US to EO and MF was calculated using intra-class coefficients. The intra-rater reliability of all measurements was excellent (ICC=.75~.98) in EMG and US. The conduct validity was calculated by one-way ANOVA with repeated measurements to compare whether the EMG and US measurements were different between MMT at different levels. There was only a significant difference between all grades at %MVC thickness measurement of US. These results suggest that a %MVC thickness measurement of US was a more sensitive and discriminate in all manual muscle testing grades. This information will be useful for the selection of US measurement and analysis methods in clinics.