Postural Stability During Standing Balance and Sit-to-Stand in Master Athlete Runners Compared With Non-Athletic Old and Young Adults.

Leightley, D, Yap, MH, Coulson, J, Piasecki, M, Cameron, J, Barnouin, Y, Tobias, J and McPhee, JS (2016) Postural Stability During Standing Balance and Sit-to-Stand in Master Athlete Runners Compared With Non-Athletic Old and Young Adults. Journal of aging and physical activity. ISSN 1063-8652

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare postural sway during a series of static balancing tasks and during five chair rises between healthy young (mean (SEM) age 26(1) yrs), healthy old (age 67(1) yrs) and master athlete runners (age 67(1) yrs; competing and training for the previous 51(5) yrs) using the Microsoft Kinect One. The healthy old had more sway than young in all balance tasks. The master athletes had similar sway to young during two-leg balancing and one leg standing with eyes open. When balancing on one-leg with eyes closed, both the healthy old and the master athletes had around 17-fold more sway than young. The healthy old and master athletes also had less anterio-posterior movement during chair rising compared with young. These results suggest that masters runners are not spared from the age-associated decline in postural stability and may benefit from specific balance training.