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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Life-long endurance trained elderly men have high aerobic power, but have similar muscle strength to non-active elderly men | | Author(s) | S Harridge, G Magnusson, B Saltin |
| Journal title | Aging: Clinical and Experimental Research, vol 9, no 1/2, February/April 1997 |
| Pages | pp 80-87 |
| Keywords | Older men ; Keeping fit ; Inactivity ; Physical capacity ; Musculoskeletal systems ; Comparison ; Denmark. |
| Annotation | Marked reductions in muscle strength and aerobic power are well-documented phenomena of the ageing process. These changes have important implications for the practical aspects of everyday living for an older person. In this Danish study, 15 highly active endurance trained men aged 70-100 years, 18 healthy men (age 68-92) who did not take part in regular physical activity, and a control group of 17 young men (aged 21-35) who were active, were compared for leg muscle strength, heart rate, oxygen uptake, blood lactate and body mass. Compared to young control subjects, older men who had maintained an extremely high level of running-based endurance exercise since adolescence, showed a similar deficit in absolute maximum isometric leg muscle strength as those who did not undertake regular physical exercise, despite a high level of aerobic power. The authors conclude that it is the nature, rather than level, of activities undertaken that is of critical importance in optimising muscle function in old age. It seems that activities which involve repetitive low force contractions (e.g. walking, swimming, running) may be of little use in this respect. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-980423213 A |
| Classmark | BC: CE: C5: BI: BK6: 48: 76K |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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