ArticleMedicine and science in sports and exercise2016
Older Runners Retain Youthful Running Economy despite Biomechanical Differences.
Article in Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Relationship Between Running Biomechanics and Running Economy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2024Pooled it
- The role of physical activity in mitigating age-related changes in the neuromuscular control of gait.npj aging · 2025Article
- A physiological comparison of the new-over 70 years of age-marathon record holder and his predecessor: A case report.Frontiers in physiology · 2023Article
- Impact of marathon performance on muscles stiffness in runners over 50 years old.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Spatiotemporal and kinematic adjustments in master runners may be associated with the relative physiological effort during running.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2023Article
- The effect of exercise modality on age-related changes observed during running.European review of aging and physical activity : official journal of the European Group for Research into Elderly and Physical Activity · 2022Article
- Greater Breast Support Is Associated With Reduced Oxygen Consumption and Greater Running Economy During a Treadmill Running Task.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2022Article
- Sub 3-Hour Marathon Runners for Five Consecutive Decades Demonstrate a Reduced Age-Related Decline in Performance.Frontiers in physiology · 2021Article
- How do prosthetic stiffness, height and running speed affect the biomechanics of athletes with bilateral transtibial amputations?Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
purposeSixty-five years of age typically marks the onset of impaired walking economy. However, running economy has not been assessed beyond the age of 65 yr. Furthermore, a critical determinant of running economy is the spring-like storage and return of elastic energy from the leg during stance, which is related to leg stiffness. Therefore, we investigated whether runners older than 65 yr retain youthful running economy and/or leg stiffness across running speeds.
methodsFifteen young and 15 older runners ran on a force-instrumented treadmill at 2.01, 2.46, and 2.91 m·s(-1). We measured their rates of metabolic energy consumption (i.e., metabolic power), ground reaction forces, and stride kinematics.
resultsThere were only small differences in running economy between young and older runners across the range of speeds. Statistically, the older runners consumed 2% to 9% less metabolic energy than the young runners across speeds (P = 0.012). Also, the leg stiffness of older runners was 10% to 20% lower than that of young runners across the range of speeds (P = 0.002), and in contrast to the younger runners, the leg stiffness of older runners decreased with speed (P < 0.001).
conclusionsRunners beyond 65 yr of age maintain youthful running economy despite biomechanical differences. It may be that vigorous exercise, such as running, prevents the age related deterioration of muscular efficiency and, therefore, may make everyday activities easier.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.