Physical Strength of Male Senior Citizens' Club Officers Participating in Leader Training Sessions

Abstract

[Purpose] The aim of this study was to investigate the change in physical strength of elderly men. [Subjects] The subjects were 816 men aged over 65 years (mean age, 71.8 ± 3.8 years) who participated in leader training sessions of a senior citizens' club. [Methods] We measured physical function (grip strength, sitting-up test, trunk flexion seated, single-leg standing time with eyes open, 10 m obstacle walking test, six minutes walking) and investigated the relation between them and age. [Results] Correlations were found between all physical strength items and age (p<.05). In particularly, the score of single-leg standing time with eyes open decreased significantly with age. [Conclusion] The senior citizens' club officers were considered to be participating positively in social activities. However, in the physical test, the results of this study suggest that physical strength decreases overall in aging, especially the decrease of balance ability was large.