Effects of Exercise on the Center of Mass of Elderly People with a High Risk of Falling

Older people face an increased risk of falling which can cause minor bruises, serious injury, or even death. This happens because as age progresses, the musculoskeletal system deteriorates, and maintaining balance becomes challenging. To counter that, exercise is recommended to help individuals maintain muscle mass. However, the effects of exercise have not been adequately quantified. In this work, 13 senior individuals participated in a group strengthening and balance program. They performed reactive balancing tasks before and after the training program and their stability was evaluated. The mean velocity norm of their center of mass was calculated to measure the impact of the exercise. Results show decreased mean velocity of the center of mass which implies increased stability. The effects are more pronounced during challenging tasks such as reacting to perturbations with their eyes closed. In conclusion, exercise had a quantifiable impact on the stability of the participants which should reduce their risk of experiencing falls in the future.

Dimitrios Menychtas, Evgenia Kouli, Athanasios Gkrekidis, Archontissa Kanavaki, Stefania Pavlidou, Elpiniki Nasiou, Evangelia Abrasi, Georgios Kontogiannis, Eleni Douda, Maria Michalopoulou, Ilias Smilios, Vassilios Gourgoulis, Georgios Ch. Syrakoulis, Nikolaos Aggelousis