Substantial age-related declines in the ability to regain balance by taking a rapid step exist among healthy adults when the time available for recovery is short. The source of the decline seems largely to lie in the decrease with age of maximum response execution speed rather than in the sensory or motor programming processes involved in response initiation.

Background. Previous work has found that healthy older men were significantly less able than young male adults to recover balance by taking a single rapid step upon sudden release from forward leans. In light of the higher rates of falls and fall-related injuries among older women compared to older men, we hypothesized that healthy older women would perform more poorly than either female young adults or older men in this test of abilities to recover balance rapidly.

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The purposes of this study were to investigate the effects of fatigue location and age on changes in postural control induced by localized muscle fatigue, as well as the patterns of recovery post-fatigue. Groups of 16 younger (18-25 years) and 16 older (55-65 years) participants performed submaximal isotonic fatiguing exercises involving the unilateral ankle plantar flexors, knee extensors, and shoulder flexors, and bilateral lumbar extensors. Postural control was assessed during quiet upright stance, from center-of-pressure and center-of-mass time series obtained before and after the fatiguing exercises. Acute effects of fatigue differed between joints, with the most substantial effects evident at the lower back, followed by the ankle. Neither knee nor shoulder fatigue resulted in significant effects on postural control. Significant acute effects of fatigue were found only among the younger group. Recovery of postural control post-fatigue was influenced by age, being more rapid in the younger group, but not by fatigue location. Along with existing evidence, these results may facilitate the development of strategies to prevent occupational falls.

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