COMPARISON ANTHROPOMETRIC, MUSCLE STRENGTH AND BALANCE BETWEEN ELDERLY PRACTITIONERS AND NON-PRACTITIONERS OF WEIGHT LIFTING

Abstract

The loss of strength, muscle mass and balance may be impaired with aging over the decline of physiological processes. The study aims to compare the body mass, muscle strength and balance among elderly practitioners and non-practitioners of bodybuilding. We evaluated 20 elderly subjects, ten practitioners of body (64.4 ± 7.72 years) and ten non-athletes (68.7 ± 6.20 years). The anthropometric assessed weight, height, BMI, circumference of thigh and arm. Muscle strength was measured by the submaximal test for estimating 1 RM test and balance were analyze the static and dynamic balance as proposed by Berg. It was found that older trained in gym, compared untrained, had significantly higher values for height, balance and repetition submaximal tests in the supine and Leg Press. It was concluded that individuals who perform resistance training, showed better performance in the test of balance and muscle strength.