A new study has shown that physical activity is beneficial for lower leg muscle coordination across both sides of the body in both the young and the elderly.
A new study has shown that physical activity is beneficial for lower leg muscle coordination across both sides of the body in both the young and the elderly. Lower limb muscle communication is essential for everyday tasks, such as walking, balancing, and climbing stairs.
"The results of this study suggest that participation in physical activity contributes to greater crossed-spinal reflex stability in both young and elderly subjects," said exercise scientist Rachel Ryder, a visiting research associate in the IU School of Public Health-Bloomington.
"In other words, the two lower legs maintain stable muscular communication patterns, which could contribute to better coordination of muscles across the right and left side of the body. The lack of this coordination or stability could exacerbate fall risk in older, sedentary subjects."
Ryder's study involved 28 healthy men and women who were sorted by age into two groups: 14 subjects in a group of people 20- to 25-years old; the rest were over 65.
Based on the International Physical Activity Questionnaire, the two groups were divided further into physically active or sedentary.
The researchers tested reflexes by alternately stimulating nerves in each leg with an electrical current while study participants rested in a prone position.
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"This is particularly important in older adults. While voluntary movement has a large role to play in fall-prevention, the motor system's 'first line of defense' against a slip or trip is the reflex system. The muscle reflexes are capable of generating a motor response in under 50 milliseconds, allowing the reflex system to quickly correct for a sudden change in body position, or at the least, reduce the impact of the fall," she added.
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