The influence of aging and sex on the kinematics and muscle activation of lower limbs of runners

Abstract

The increase in life expectancy of the population and the benefits that physical activity brings to health, resulted in an increase in middle-aged and older individuals practicing running. However, studies have indicated that the incidence of injury is greater in the elderly than in young people. This increased incidence may be partly due to changes in the running kinematics. Another important aspect is the difference between the sexes. Studies have shown that female runners are twice as likely to get injuried when compared to men. However, few studies have compared kinematics and muscle activation pattern among young, middle-aged and elderly runners, also there is a lack of studies comparing these variables between the sexes. The aim of this study will be to evaluate the hip, knee and ankle kinematics and the magnitude of activation of lower limb muscles between men and women, and among young, middle aged and elderly runners. Ninety volunteers will be separated into 3 groups, 15 men and 15 women in each group. The group 1 will have individuals with 18 to 35 years, group 2 36 to 60 years and group 3, over 61 years. The kinematic and electromyographic evaluations will be conducted simultaneously during treadmill running. Kinematic data collection and analysis will be performed using the Qualisys Motion Capture System (Qualisys Medical AB, Sweden) and muscle electrical activity evaluation will be performed using the EMG Trigno " Wireless System (DelSYS Inc., Boston, USA). For comparison between groups and the comparison between sexes within each group, analyzes of covariance (ANCOVA) will be applied, considering the running speed as covariate. The Bonferroni test will be used to identify specific differences. For all analyzes, it will be adopted a significance level of 0,05. (AU)