ABSTRACT
Purpose:\ The purpose of this study is to compare the ability of tandem walk in Thai healthy women and to study the relationship between age and tandem walking performance. Participants: The 148 volunteers participated in this research are divided into 6 age groups i.e. 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69 and 70-79 years . Methods: The participants were assigned for tandem walking measurement along the straight line for total of 30 steps, counting the walking error and timing the walking time only in the middle 20 steps. Analysis: The difference between age groups was compared by One Way ANOVA and Scheffe Post hoc test was performed for multiple comparisons. Results: The walking error in the group of 20-29 and 30-39 years (2.26 +/-1.52, 2.76 +/- 2.77 times respectively) were significantly different(p\< 0.05) from the group of 60-69 and 70-79 years (6.63 +/- 4.45, 8.58ฑ4.84 times respectively). The tandem walking time in the group of 20-29 years (26.86 5.31 seconds) and 70-79 years (38.35ฑ9.08 seconds) are significantly different (p\< 0.05). Furthermore, this study found medium level correlation between aged and walking error (r =.477) significantly (p\<0.05), and low level correlation between age and tandem walking time ( r = .301) significantly (p\<0.05). Conclusions: The result of this study can be concluded that the tandem walking performance in 20-29 and 30-39 years are changed when the age are over 60 years and the balance performance during tandem walk declined with increasing age. Therefore the important of safe ambulation for elderly should be concerned especially when the age is over 60 years. Key words: Tandem walk, balance performance.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: This study aim to investigate effect ofcross training by eccentric isotonic knee extensortraining at fast velocity on muscle performance ofuntrained leg in Thai males. Participants: Twentyhealthy males aged 19.80 ± 0.83 years participated in this study. They were divided into two groups; training (TG) and control (CG) groups (n=10 each). Methods: The TG trained unilateral eccentric isotonic exercise of right leg 3 times/week for 6 weeks on Biodex system 4 pro at velocity of 180o /s. The CG received no exercise except strength testing of both legs. Concentric isokinetic peak torque (CPT) and eccentric isokinetic peak torque (EPT) of knee extensor muscle of both legs was tested at pre and post training period. Analysis: CPT and EPT were analyzed using a group (CG, TG)×leg (trained, untrained×time (pre, post) multivariate analysis. When there were multivariate significances, the two-way mixed ANOVA was used and then the Bonferroni’s test was used for the post hoc analysis. The change of CPT and EPT between pre and post training were analyzed using a group (CG, TG)×leg (trained, untrained) multivariate analysis. When there were multivariate significances, the unpaired t-test was used. Results: There were not significant differences in CPT and EPT between trained and untrained legs in both groups and both times. At pre-training period, there were significant differences in EPT of trained leg between CG and TG (p=0.024) (113.09 ± 23.97 and 90.16 ± 28.71 Nm, respectively). After 6 weeks of training, EPT of TG in both trained and untrained legs (135.44 ± 54.90 and 114.12 ± 36.19 Nm, respectively) were greater than in those of CG (62.13 ± 12.62 and 52.52 10.09 Nm, respectively) (p=0.001). The change of CPT only trained leg (44.93 ± 39.88 Nm) in TG was greater than CG (8.67 ± 17.32 Nm) (p=0.021) but the changes of EPT in both trained and untrained legs of TG (83.38 ± 57.16 and 65.50 ± 35.58 Nm, respectively) were greater than those of CG (-3.4 ± 10.41 and -4.69 ± 12.43 Nm, respectively) (p=0.001). In TG, there were significant differences in CPT and EPT between pre and post training in both trained (p