Strength exercises fail to improve gait biomechanics in healthy old adults

Beijersbergen, C.M.I. (Chantal) (2013) Strength exercises fail to improve gait biomechanics in healthy old adults. thesis, Human Movement Sciences.

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Abstract

Background. With increasing people show a prominent reduction in in self-selected walking speed, and muscle force and power generation. Strength intervention programs are successfully used to reduce this loss of muscle force and power and generate faster gait in old adults. However it is unclear how motor interventions improve gait velocity. Objective. To determine if 12-week strength training improves leg strength and gait velocity and if these changes occur in a correlated manner. Method. In a non-randomized controlled study 14 healthy community-dwelling elderly (age= 73) performed 3x/week leg press strength training (TG), and a control group (CG) performed plantarflexor stretch training. Before and after the interventions, 3D gait analysis and strength measurements were performed. Results. TG increased leg strength with 39% (p = 0.013) and CG did improved strength between baseline and post-test. Initial walking speed was 1.43 m/s for all subjects gait velocity or biomechanics did not change over time for both groups. Conclusion. Because the study suffered from a ceiling effect with respect to gait velocity, even 39% increase leg in strength was insufficient to modify gait biomechanics and gait velocity. Post-intervention old adults walk at lower relative effort compared to baseline.

Item Type:	Thesis (Thesis)
Supervisor name:	Hortobagyi, Prof. Dr. T. and University Medical Center Groningen, Center for Human Moveme and The Netherlands
Supervisor name:	DeVita, Dr. P. and East Carolina University, Department of Kinesiology
Faculty:	Medical Sciences
Date Deposited:	25 Jun 2020 10:40
Last Modified:	25 Jun 2020 10:40
URI:	https://umcg.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/184

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