ABSTRACT
Western societies are challenged with an increasing incidence of dependency in everyday life contexts of older individuals. The deterioration of neuromuscular control in older individuals has been attributed to the reduction of strength, the slowing of behaviour and the modification in the quality of coordination (Spirduso et al., 2005). Conventionally, neuromuscular control and function are evaluated by means of handgrip strength and functional muscular power of the lower limbs (i.e., counter-movement jump, CMJ), also in relation to chronological age. Age-related changes show an inverted-U trend (Laforest et al., 1990), with a development throughout childhood, peak values at 20-30 years of age and a decrement with advancing age, more evident in the lower limbs with respect to the upper limbs (Larsson et al., 1979; Lafargue et al., 2003). However, a wide variation between individuals of a similar age is often observed, limiting the interpretation of the role played by chronological age also related to physical activity. In fact, training proved to be effective in increasing strength and power performances of young (Rowland, 2005) and old (Spirduso et al., 2005) individuals.
