Countermovement Jump Peak Power Changes with Age in Masters Weightlifters

Abstract

Aging is associated with decreased muscle strength and power. Power is particularly important for maintaining the independence of older adults when performing activities of daily living. The countermovement jump has been identified as a reliable and safe method to assess lower extremity power across the lifespan. The purpose of this investigation was to study sex differences and age-related changes in countermovement jump peak power among masters weightlifters with the secondary purpose of comparing results to previous reports of community and masters athletes. Female (n = 63, 39 to 70 yrs, med (56 yrs)) and male (n = 39, 35 to 86 yrs, med (59 yrs)) participants of the 2022 World Masters Championships completed three maximal effort countermovement jump repetitions following a dynamic warm-up. Vertical ground reaction forces were recorded, and peak power normalized to body mass was calculated. Results indicated significant age-related peak power among weightlifters, with the decline being significantly more pronounced in males than females. Female weightlifters exhibited less age-related decline compared to normative data as well as the other Master athlete comparison cohorts (short and long-distance runners), whereas the males demonstrated similar age-related declines as the comparison cohorts. While the female weightlifters in the current study generally demonstrated the least age-related declines in CMJ peak power of the comparative literature, the male weightlifters showed similar age-related decline rates.

Keywords: aging; dynapenia; masters athletes; muscle power; sarcopenia.

Figure 1

Scatterplot showing age-related declines in peak power for the female (blue) and male (orange) weightlifters.

Figure 2

Comparison of peak power models across age between weightlifters and previous community normative (Runge et al. [26], Siglinsky et al. [27]) and masters athlete data (Michaelis et al. [35]) for the males (left) and females (right). The top plots are for the unadjusted model comparisons, while the bottom plots include the previous data being adjusted for arm swing augmentation (11%). WL: weightlifters, LDR: long-distance runners, SDR: short-distance runners.

Figure 3

Comparison of the model slope estimates between the weightlifters and previous community normative (Runge et al. [26], Siglinsky et al. [27]) and masters athlete (Michaelis et al. [35]) data. Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals for the weightlifter estimates. More negative values indicate a steeper decline in peak power with age. LDR: long-distance runners, SDR: short-distance runners.