Aging impairs the recovery in mechanical muscle function following 4 days of disuse

As aged individuals are frequently exposed to short-term disuse caused by disease or musculoskeletal injury, it is important to understand how short-term disuse and subsequent retraining affect lower limb mechanical muscle function. The purpose of the present study was, therefore, to investigate the effect of 4 days of lower limb disuse followed by 7 days of active recovery on mechanical muscle function of the knee extensors in young (24.3±0.9 years, n=11) and old (67.2±1.0 years, n=11) recreationally active healthy males. Slow and moderate dynamic muscle strength were assessed using isokinetic dynamometry (60 and 180° s(-1), respectively) along with isometric muscle strength and rapid muscle force capacity examined as contractile rate of force development (RFD), Impulse, and relative RFD (rRFD) during the initial phase of contraction (100 ms time interval relative to onset of contraction). Prior to disuse, marked age-related differences (p