658 PROCEEDINGS of the HUMAN FACTORS AND ERGONOMICS SOCIETY 38th ANNUAL MEETING-1994 AGE EFFECTS IN BIOMECHANICAL MODELING OF STATIC LIFTING STRENGTHS

There is growing awareness that age results in reduced strengths in the population, and that significant decreases start in the 5th decade. The magnitude of the decrease in strength depends on the specific muscle function being tested. Because of differential effects it is not clear how various decreases could alter whole-body strength performance. This paper de-scribes how specific strength decreases measured in an older population of men and women could affect their whole-body exertion capabilities in selected scenarios. A computerized strength prediction program is used to both predict the whole-body strength changes with age, and to study how older populations can alter their postures to achieve maximum exertion capability. The results indicate that different muscle group strengths decline by 5 % to 70 % with age, depending on which muscle group is tested. These changes have profound effects on whole-body exertion capabilities, which also are shown to depend on specific postures used to per-form the exertions