Aging, isometric strength and endurance, and cardiovascular responses to static effort

Abstract

Previous studies on the relationship of age to isometric muscular strength are few, on isometric endurance rare, and on the physiological responses to static effort nonexistent. This investigation assessed the maximal handgrip strength, the duration of a fatiguing handgrip contraction at a tension of 40% of maximal strength and the heart rate and blood pressure during that contraction of 100 men aged from 22 to 62 yr. The subjects of this study were all men employed in a machine shop for a large aircraft corporation. The homogeneity of their occupations may well explain why, unlike previous reports, we found no change in muscular strength or muscular endurance with age. However, although heart rate increased during the contraction in all subjects, the increase in heart rate was greater in younger men. In contrast, while both systolic and diastolic blood pressures increased during the contraction in all subjects, the largest increase in systolic blood pressure was attained by the men in the older decades; there was no difference due to age in the diastolic blood pressures. The implications of these findings are discussed.