Leg stiffness and electromyography of knee extensors/flexors: Comparison between older and younger adults during stair descent

This study investigated differences in knee extensor/flexor electromyography (EMG), leg loading rate, and leg stiffness in older and younger men during stair descent. Sixteen older men (mean +/- standard deviation [SD] = 72 +/- 4.5 years) and sixteen younger men (mean +/- SD = 21.2 +/- 0.5 years) were recruited. The EMG signals were recorded from the rectus femoris and the biceps femoris, while an electrogoniometer measured knee joint angle changes, and a force platform recorded the ground reaction forces (GRFs). We calculated leg stiffness by dividing the first peak GRF by the corresponding leg displacement. We used the Student's t-test to examine group differences. Results showed that the older subjects had 78.6% higher preactivated EMG values in the knee extensor and 128% greater coactivity in the knee extensors/ flexors in the prelanding phase. At the impact phase, we observed leg stiffness to be 26.6% greater in the older than the younger subjects. The older subjects needed 94.6% more support time in performing push-off and also developed a compensatory strategy in stair descent, which altered the scaling of muscle preactivity and increased leg stiffness.