Vol. 92, Issue 6, 2319-2325, June 2002
Aged men display blunted biorhythmic variation of muscle
performance and physiological responses
Michael R.
Deschenes,
Laurie L.
Bronson,
Meredith P.
Cadorette,
Julia E.
Powers, and
John C.
Weinlein
Department of Kinesiology, The College of William and Mary,
Williamsburg, Virginia 23187-8795
Aging is known to disrupt the
"biological clock" that governs physiological variables at rest.
This study sought to determine whether aged men demonstrated
biorhythmic variation in muscle performance during resistance exercise
and physiological responses to that stimulus. Ten aged (75.6 ± 1.6 yr; mean ± SE) men completed an isokinetic testing protocol
of knee extensors and flexors at 0800, 1200, 1600, and 2000 h. Although
time of day variation in peak torque was detectable, significant
(P
0.05) oscillation was established only in the
knee flexors at 3.14 rad/s. Heart rate, blood pressure, and rectal
temperature displayed no significant variation, but trends
(P < 0.10) in oscillation of postexercise blood
pressure and rectal temperature were noted. Temporal patterns in
biorhythmic variation of muscle performance, as well as thermal and
cardiovascular measures, emulated those observed in a previous study involving young men where the magnitude of variation was sufficient to achieve statistical significance. Similar to our earlier
findings in young men, however, pre- and postexercise testosterone and
cortisol concentrations demonstrated significant variation among aged
men. These data confirm the blunting of biorhythmic variation in muscle
performance and physiological variables, except for circulating
hormones, in aged men.
chronobiology; senescence; circadian; exercise; diurnal