Investigation of age and gender related changes in force of isometric contraction, muscle endurance and muscle strength among young and old healthy people

This study has investigated the effect of age and gender on the muscle endurance, muscle strength and force of contraction among 30 moderately active urban Australian adults. Experiments were conducted with healthy people falling under two age groups (Young: 20-29 years and Old: 60-69 years). The endurance time, force at maximum voluntary contraction and variability in the steadiness of the force were computed from the measured force while performing sustained isometric contraction. It has experimentally determined that there small decrease in the endurance period for old people but there was a significant change (p < 0.05) with gender. The results show that there was no significant difference in maximum voluntary force of contraction (normalized to body mass index) between young and old. The results also indicate that there is an increase in the force variability among the older cohort compared with the younger cohort indicating that there loss of steadiness in force as age increases (p < 0.01) across all levels of force of contraction. The findings of this study can be used for the assessment and planning of rehabilitation regimes for people based on their age and gender. © 2012 IEEE