Are females getting more fatigable as they age?

The aim of this study was to compare performance fatigability between young (n = 13; 18–35 yr.; 23.5 ± 3.3 yr.), old (n = 13; 60–79 yr.; 68.2 ± 4.3 yr.), and very old (n = 11; ≥ 80 yr.; 85.6 ± 1.8 yr.) females during single-limb isometric (ISO) vs. isokinetic concentric (CON) vs. cycling (BIKE) fatiguing tasks.

Participants randomly performed three incremental fatiguing tasks where increments were set as percentage of body weight to better reflect the daily life: (1) ISO and (2) CON consisted of stages of 75 contractions (120 s, 0.8 s on/0.8 s off) on an isokinetic dynamometer and (3) BIKE consisted of stages of 120 s at 37.5 rpm with similar duty cycle. Knee extensors maximal force, voluntary activation and potentiated twitch amplitude were measured at baseline, after each stage and at exhaustion.

Compared to young, exercise performance was 20% and 53% lower in old and very old females in ISO, 46% and 76% lower in CON and 32% and 62% lower in BIKE (all p < 0.01). For a given workload (i.e. common stages), performance fatigability (i.e. force loss) was greater for very old compared to young females in CON only (p = 0.018). At exhaustion, performance fatigability was similar across groups and conditions (~ 30%; all p > 0.05), with similar impairments in both voluntary activation and twitch amplitude.

These results emphasize the importance of the kind of fatiguing task and modalities of evaluation when investigating the effects of aging on performance fatigability.