Increased Functional Mobility in Healthy Elderly Individuals After Six Months of Adapted Taekwondo Practice

Age-related muscle mass and force reduction may ultimately pave the way for loss of independence, reduced quality of life (QoL) and increased falls, which represents one of the primary causes of hospitalization and death among the elderly. Physical exercise (PE) is widely proposed to reduce the risk of falls (RoF) in the elderly, and Taekwondo (TKD) seems a particularly suitable activity for this purpose. Therefore, this single-arm longitudinal observational study aims to evaluate (a) the effects of a six-month adapted TKD course on RoF by means of an instrumented version of the timed up and go test (TUG) and (b) differences after six months of TKD on TUG temporal and kinematic variables. Twenty elderly participants of both sexes (age: 64.6 ± 4.2 years; mass: 76.0 ± 15.0 kg; stature: 1.63 ± 0.10 m) were assessed before (T0) and after (T6) six months of adapted TKD by means of the i-TUG test. TUG, walking phases and time to sit duration were shorter than at T0. Furthermore, during walking phases, antero-posterior linear acceleration increased significantly. The adapted TKD course was suitable to improve functional mobility in the elderly, and the use of the instrumented TUG allowed us to further our understanding of the mechanisms underlying these improvements.