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Muscular viscoelastic characteristics of athletes participating in the European Master Indoor Athletics Championship

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Abstract

Purpose

To investigate how the viscoelastic characteristics of muscles (non-neural tone, elasticity and stiffness) vary as a function of age and gender in a sample of track and field master athletes. To compare these findings with data on related sedentary subjects in literature.

Methods

A total of 390 athletes (aged 35–99) were assessed during the European Master Athletics Indoor Championship 2016. A non-invasive measurement device called MyotonPro was used to measure tone, stiffness, and elasticity in the biceps brachii and rectus femoris muscles at rest. Linear regression analysis was used to assess the correlation between age and the measured parameters. To compare our results with previously reported data, we stratified participants according to gender and age.

Results

Tone was found to not be dependent on age, whereas stiffness was found to be age dependent. Elasticity was found to be both physical activity and age dependent. Tone (only for men), elasticity, and stiffness were lower in master athletes than in sedentary subjects.

Conclusions

Tone, elasticity, and stiffness change with aging; nevertheless, our findings suggest that physical activity can delay the effects of muscular aging, improving fitness in older people.

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Abbreviations

BB:

Biceps brachii

BMI:

Body mass index

CSA:

Cross-sectional area

E:

Elasticity

EMACI:

European Master Athletics Championships Indoor

ES:

Effect size

FFT:

Fast Fourier transform

ICCs:

Intra-class correlation coefficients

RF:

Rectus femoris

S:

Stiffness

T:

Tone

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomolecular Sciences - Division of Exercise and Health Sciences, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Urbino, Italy

    Marco Gervasi, Davide Sisti, Stefano Amatori, Marco Andreazza, Piero Benelli, Piero Sestili, Marco Bruno Luigi Rocchi & Anna Rita Calavalle

Authors
  1. Marco Gervasi
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  2. Davide Sisti
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  3. Stefano Amatori
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  4. Marco Andreazza
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  5. Piero Benelli
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  6. Piero Sestili
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  7. Marco Bruno Luigi Rocchi
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  8. Anna Rita Calavalle
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marco Gervasi.

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Conflict of interest

All authors declare no conflict of interest.

Funding

This work was partly supported by the fund “Progetti di ricerca DISB 2017”, granted by the Department of Biomolecular Sciences, University of Urbino, Italy.

Additional information

Communicated by Peter Krustrup.

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Gervasi, M., Sisti, D., Amatori, S. et al. Muscular viscoelastic characteristics of athletes participating in the European Master Indoor Athletics Championship. Eur J Appl Physiol 117, 1739–1746 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-017-3668-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-017-3668-z

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