The Force-Velocity Relationship in Older People: Reliability and Validity of a Systematic Procedure
Summary (2 min read)
Introduction
- Muscle power has increasingly been shown to be an important determinant of athletic performance [36].
- The importance of muscle power oversteps the context of sport, and early studies observed a strong association between muscle power and several indices of functional performance in older adults [1].
- The individual capacity to produce muscle power depends on the ability to exert force and velocity, and consequently, on the forcevelocity (F-V) relationship.
ABstR ACt
- This study compared the reliability and validity of different protocols evaluating the force-velocity (F-V) relationship and muscle power in older adults.
- Registering mean values, a third attempt, and multiple loads (>3), was significantly more reliable (Pmax: CV = 2.6 %; ICC = 0.99) than the other alternatives.
- No significant differences were observed between concentric and eccentric-concentric repetitions.
- Thus, collecting mean force and velocity values against multiple loads, while monitoring the linearity of the F-V relationship, seemed to be the more adequate procedure to assess the F-V profile and muscle power in older adults.
Participants
- Subjects were recruited through advertisements and community newsletters.
- The subjects completed a medical history questionnaire and performed the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) [17] to assess their physical function.
- Exclusion criteria included a SPPB score < 4, severe cognitive impairment (mini-mental state examination (MMSE) score < 20), neuromuscular or joint injury, stroke, myocardial infarction or bone fracture in the previous six months, uncontrolled hypertension ( > 200/110 mmHg) or terminal illness.
- All the subjects gave their informed consent and the study was performed in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration and approved by the Ethical Committee of the Toledo Hospital.
- This study meets the ethical standards in sports and exercises science research [18].
Testing Procedures
- First, the participants attended 2 familiarization sessions.
- During the F-V and muscle power testing procedure, the subjects performed 2 sets of 1 repetition with increasing loads (10-kg increments) from 40 % of their body mass.
- Med covery time, the subjects were asked to perform 2 sets of 3 repetitions at 60 % 1RM in order to compare a single-repetition per set (SR; a purely concentric muscle action) vs. a multiple-repetition per set (MR; containing eccentric-concentric muscle actions) protocol.
Adverse events
- Adverse events were carefully monitored for 3 weeks in which data collection was conducted for each subject.
- An adverse event was defined as any unfavorable or unintended event (pain, discomfort, injury or accident) that occurred during the course of the study and that might not necessarily be caused by the study procedures.
Data analysis
- Mean force and velocity values from each repetition, and force and velocity values exerted at peak power within each repetition were acquired from all the evaluations to compare both sets of data.
- Hereafter, mean data were used for the comparison between procedures.
- In addition, a short version of the entire protocol considering 3 loads (3-L) was also studied by selecting the first, the middle and the last load performed by the subjects.
- In all cases, several variables were extracted from the F-V regression equation.
- Force at zero velocity (i. e., theoretical maximal isometric force) was obtained from the force-intercept (F0), while velocity at zero force (i. e., maximal velocity with no load) was calculated as the velocity-intercept (V0).
Statistical analysis
- Sample size calculation was conducted based on the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) using the R package (R version 3.2.4 revised) [10].
- The F-V relationship was evaluated by measuring force and velocity data from 6.2 ± 1.8 loads and 13.2 ± 3.7 repetitions per subject.
- No adverse events were registered throughout the study.
Reliability of an SR vs. an MR protocol
- There were no significant differences in mean muscle power exerted at 60 % 1RM between testing sessions or between different protocols (▶table 2).
- Reliability was significantly higher for the 2 + 1- than for the 2-attempt protocol regarding SEM % values for V0 and Pmax, and ICC of V0 values (▶table 5).
- The authors findings showed that a protocol collecting mean force and velocity values from either concentric or eccentric-concentric muscle actions performed against multiple progressive loads was an optimal strategy to evaluate the F-V relationship and muscle power in older adults in terms of reliability and external validity, explaining up to 34 % of the variability in physical function.
- Wilhelm EN, Rech A, Minozzo F, Radaelli R, Botton CE, Pinto RS.
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Citations
126 citations
Cites background or methods from "The Force-Velocity Relationship in ..."
...A great variety of testing protocols are available in the literature using a great variety of testing instruments (Alcazar et al., 2017a)....
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...The highest mean velocity for each load was plotted on a custom-made Microsoft Excel® template (Alcazar et al., 2017b), and a linear regression equation was fitted simultaneously during the F-V evaluation....
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...(Alcazar et al., 2017b)....
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...…and validate STS muscle power values with those exerted in the leg press exercise due to the similarity between these two lower-body multi-joint tasks, and because the leg press has been shown to be the most commonly used exercise to assess leg muscle power in older people (Alcazar et al., 2017a)....
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...A full description and validation of the force-velocity and muscle power testing procedure has been reported (Alcazar et al., 2017b)....
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64 citations
48 citations
48 citations
Cites background or methods from "The Force-Velocity Relationship in ..."
...Accordingly, the test was completed in only 27 minutes on average, though a short version that required only 13 minutes was also presented (117)....
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...Pmax always occurred at submaximal intensities, hence studies aiming at measuring Pmax could avoid maximal intensity efforts (ie 1RM/MVIC testing) by means of other protocols based on absolute or relative-to-body mass load increments (72,73,75,76,78,83,92,117)....
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...In addition, mean values have been found to be more reliable and strongly associated with physical performance than peak values (117)....
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...We recently validated a testing procedure in older adults by which the force–velocity relationship can be obtained, and thus, the power output exerted by the older subjects over the whole power–load relationship, along with the true Pmax value (117)....
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...In addition, performing one repetition was reported as reproducible and valid as three repetitions (117), so performing >3 repetitions per set might be futile....
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42 citations
Cites methods from "The Force-Velocity Relationship in ..."
...Several variables were extracted from the FeV regression equation as previously reported (Alcazar et al., 2017) (force-intercept or maximal force (F0), velocity-intercept, maximal velocity (V0), slope of the FeV relationship, maximal muscle power (Pmax), the load that elicited Pmax and optimal force (force at which Pmax is produced)), and Pmax was also relativized to body mass....
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...Force and the highest mean velocity data for each load from each repetition were computed and plotted in a Microsoft Excel® template (Alcazar et al., 2017) (freely available online)....
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References
7,417 citations
"The Force-Velocity Relationship in ..." refers methods in this paper
...SPPB: short physical performance battery D ow nl oa de d by : N at io na l U ni ve rs ity o f S in ga po re ....
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...The subjects completed a medical history questionnaire and performed the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) [17] to assess their physical function....
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...Our subjects ranged from older adults with adequate physical performance (SPPB = 12; n = 6) to older adults with severe impairments in functional mobility (SPPB = 4-6; n = 4)....
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...Variable Mean (sD) Range Age (years) 75.8 (4.7) 70.2–84.9 BMI (kg/m2) 30.2 (4.4) 19.5–43.0 SPPB score 10.6 (2.1) 4.0–12.0 MMSE score 26.2 (3.0) 20.0–30.0 BMI: body mass index....
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...In addition, the different procedures were also compared regarding their associations with the SPPB score, as a measure of construct validity....
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4,149 citations
"The Force-Velocity Relationship in ..." refers methods in this paper
...Reliability of the F-V relationship and muscle power values obtained from the different procedures were evaluated using different approaches [20]....
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961 citations
"The Force-Velocity Relationship in ..." refers background in this paper
...However, the importance of muscle power oversteps the context of sport, and early studies observed a strong association between muscle power and several indices of functional performance in older adults [1]....
[...]
829 citations
"The Force-Velocity Relationship in ..." refers result in this paper
...Though the SSC is believed to increase neuromuscular performance in young adults [26], contradictory results exist regarding older adults [5, 22]....
[...]
735 citations
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Frequently Asked Questions (10)
Q2. How did the protocol predict muscle power in older adults?
Their findings showed that a protocol collecting mean force and velocity values from either concentric or eccentric-concentric muscle actions performed against multiple progressive loads was an optimal strategy to evaluate the F-V relationship and muscle power in older adults in terms of reliability and external validity, explaining up to 34 % of the variability in physical function.
Q3. What is the way to assess the F-V relationship in older adults?
the F-V relationship during multi-joint movements has been shown to follow a strong linear regression pattern [4, 23], which permits the F-V relationship to be accurately drawn from a few F-V points by means of a linear regression equation [39], something that could facilitate the evaluation of the F-V relationship in older adults.
Q4. How long did it take to perform the F-V test?
Their subjects started the test with a relative load based on their body weight, so a 1RM test prior to the F-V evaluation was not necessary, reducing the total time required for F-V testing to ̴ 27 min.
Q5. How can the evaluator test the strength of the exercise?
By means of a 2-load protocol it is not possible to test whether the subjects are performing the exercise repetitions as fast and strongly as possible, because R2 values will always be equal to 1 and deviations of the F-V points from the linear regression equation equal to 0, independently of the subjects’ ability to exert their maximal force and velocity.
Q6. how can i determine when a load should be discarded?
The Force-Velocity Relationship in … Int J Sports MedTraining & Testing Thiemebe monitored simultaneously during the F-V assessment, and considering their proposed criteria (deviation > 0.03 m/s from the linear regression equation), it can be objectively decided when an additional attempt with a certain load should be performed, and when a load should be discarded from the F-V analysis.
Q7. How many older adults were accepted to participate in the study?
A total of 31 older subjects (17 women) were given medical acceptance by the study physician and met the entry criteria to participate in the study (▶table 1).
Q8. How did the procedure improve the reliability of Pmax and V0?
Their procedure partially solved this problem, because it was found to significantly improve the reliability of Pmax and V0 values (SEM % = 3.3 and 5.7 %, respectively) over a traditional protocol with a fixed number of attempts (SEM % = 5.6 and 8.5 %, respectively).
Q9. What is the definition of a 'force-velocity relationship'?
As a reference method, the F-V relationship was calculated from mean force and velocity data recorded from all the measured loads (multiple-load (M-L) protocol), with 2 attempts per load, and an additional attempt as mentioned in a previous section (2 + 1-attempt protocol).
Q10. How many attempts did the authors have to perform the F-V test?
A short version of the entire procedure was also studied, consisting of evaluating the F-V relationship against 3 loads, which could reduce to ̴ 13 min the time needed to conduct the F-V test.