Energy expenditure and muscle activity in active and passive commute among elderly

Abstract

Since the amount of elderly people and people being overweight are increasing, there should be means to prevent people from getting weight and to ensure longer independency and ability in everyday living among elderly people to decrease the costs that are caused by these trends.

Purpose of the study was to compare muscle activity and oxygen consumption in an active and passive commute to demonstrate the effectiveness of active way of living. Thigh muscle EMG activity and oxygen consumption (VO2) during different daily activities such as walking and stair negotiation in unloaded and loaded conditions were measured from 16 elderly individuals, but due to incomplete data nine subjects were included to the analyses. Measurements consisted of two laboratory measurement days during which body composition, muscle strength and maximal VO2 test were measured in addition to the daily activities. VO2 and EMG activities were compared in two conditions 1) commute by bus vs. walking 1 km and 2) ascending and descending floors using stairs vs. lift.

Results showed that in an active way of commute (i.e. walking) an elderly person can use over 3 times the amount of oxygen and muscle activity that is present in passive commute (using bus). Using stairs requires over 11 times the amount of oxygen and muscle activity than when using lift. During stair ascend the mean peak EMG activity exceeded 120 %MVC while mean peak VO2 was about 70% VO2max. Further, those who were able to ascend all the five flights did not reach 100% MVC muscle activity level but the others did. It seems that active way of commute provides one effective way of preventing individuals from weight gain.