Abstract
Trunk muscle strength and control is an important prerequisite for everyday activities among elderly people decreasing the predisposition to falls. High levels of physical exercise performed by older athletes could offer benefits to core/trunk muscle strength and postural control compared with recreational physical activities and among elderly people with lower levels of physical activity. The present study aimed to compare trunk muscle strength and postural control of older running athletes vs. older physically active adults. Participants were master road runners (RUN, n = 15, six women, 64.3 ± 3.6 years) and physically active elderly (control group, CON, n = 15, six women, 65.4 ± 5.0 years) people that were submitted to the evaluations: esthesiometer, posturography (force plate), and isokinetic test (Biodex dynamometer) of trunk muscle extension and flexion. RUN presented higher values for relative peak torque of trunk extensor muscles at 60°/s (p = 0.046) and 180°/s (p = 0.007) and relative average power during trunk extension at 60°/s (p = 0.008) and 180°/s (p = 0.004) compared to CON. CON had a higher medial-lateral oscillation speed of the center of pressure in the stable condition with eyes closed (p = 0.004) compared to RUN. RUN presented higher isokinetic torque of extensor trunk muscles and better postural control than CON. This supposedly could help with postural control and balance and contribute to the prevention of falls among the elderly. The practice of running systematically by master athletes may partially explained our findings.
Highlights
Maintaining a high level of physical, psychological, cognitive, and social functions in the aging process, and later life is a critical component of successful aging (Geard et al, 2017)
Older people that practice physical modalities such as Tai Chi present a better level of lower limb strength, reduced body oscillation, and greater confidence in balance (Tsang and Hui-Chan, 2005). It is currently unknown whether high levels of physical exercise similar to those performed by older athletes provide additional benefits for postural control and core muscle strength above and beyond recreational physical activities
Master’s road runners presented significantly greater values for relative peak torque and relative power, trunk extensor muscles, at 60 and 180◦/s, and lower medial-lateral oscillation speed of the center of pressure in the stable condition with eyes closed when compared to older recreationally and non-competitive physical active adults. These results suggest that lifelong and higher levels of physical exercise could help with postural control and could contribute to preventing falls and maintaining functional capacity at high levels among the elderly
Summary
Maintaining a high level of physical, psychological, cognitive, and social functions in the aging process, and later life is a critical component of successful aging (Geard et al, 2017). Scientific evidence shows that a large amount of strenuous physical activity is not necessarily required for older adults to maintain good health and quality of life (McPhee et al, 2016) For those people who want to compete in the more advanced stages of the aging process, age is not a limiting factor in itself (Tanaka and Seals, 2008; Akkari et al, 2015). Older people that practice physical modalities such as Tai Chi present a better level of lower limb strength, reduced body oscillation, and greater confidence in balance (Tsang and Hui-Chan, 2005) It is currently unknown whether high levels of physical exercise similar to those performed by older athletes provide additional benefits for postural control and core (trunk) muscle strength above and beyond recreational physical activities. Considering the dose-responses relationship between physical exercise levels and musculoskeletal benefits, we hypothesized that isokinetic core (trunk) muscle strength and postural control of master older running athletes would be better than their physically active older peers
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