The impact of age on muscle activation patterns during prolonged walking

Mild fatigue during activities of daily living may have a greater impact on muscle function in older versus younger adults. Multi-muscle pattern (MMP) analysis was performed combining a wavelet transform and principal component analysis (PCA) to discriminate contributions of principal patterns (PP) between midlife and young healthy adults. Results suggest that there are larger changes in muscle activation following a prolonged treadmill walk for midlife that may contribute to functional decline in response to bouts of activity.