Old men just as strong as young women

As they age, their strength decreases to the same extent, concludes industrial designer, Dr. Lieke Voorbij, in a recent article in the magazine Applied ergonomics. Men of seventy-five still have seventy percent of their original muscle power, which makes them just as strong as young women. And on average, an eighty year-old woman only has forty percent of the muscular strength of a man of twenty-five. Of course, in whole her life, she never possessed hundred percent of his strength.

Together with her colleagues, Voorbij let seven hundred and fifty experimental subjects, aged between twenty and ninety-five years-old, and all still living on their own, do experiments. They had to pull a door handle as hard as possible, and also push against the door, so she could measure the maximum force they could exert. Other tests included pressing objects as hard as possible and attempting to unscrew the lid of a jar that couldn’t be unscrewed. The force exercised on the lid was measured.

People use different muscles for these measurements, varying from hand muscles to a multitude of muscles when pushing against a door. However, on average, the performances by women of eighty appeared to be directly related to the muscle achievements of men of twenty-five.

That’s good news for industrial designers, Voorbij believes: ”Much is known about the pinching power of men and women in several age categories. But other forces have only been measured in young men, often soldiers.” Now, however, it appears to be possible to relate other forces to one measurement with young men, so that not every movement has to be tested extensively with elderly people.

With elderly people increasingly living on their own, industrial designers wanted to find out how much force these people still have. They should be able to open a jar of vegetables, something in which they don’t often succeed now. The elderly should also be able to operate emergency doors.

On average, men pinch one and a half times as hard as women. They also use 1.5 times as much force to open a jar of jam.

Regardless of whether they are twenty or eighty years-old, men, on average, are one and a half times stronger than women. As they age, their strength decreases to the same extent, concludes industrial designer, Dr. Lieke Voorbij, in a recent article in the magazine Applied ergonomics. Men of seventy-five still have seventy percent of their original muscle power, which makes them just as strong as young women. And on average, an eighty year-old woman only has forty percent of the muscular strength of a man of twenty-five. Of course, in whole her life, she never possessed hundred percent of his strength.

Together with her colleagues, Voorbij let seven hundred and fifty experimental subjects, aged between twenty and ninety-five years-old, and all still living on their own, do experiments. They had to pull a door handle as hard as possible, and also push against the door, so she could measure the maximum force they could exert. Other tests included pressing objects as hard as possible and attempting to unscrew the lid of a jar that couldn’t be unscrewed. The force exercised on the lid was measured.

People use different muscles for these measurements, varying from hand muscles to a multitude of muscles when pushing against a door. However, on average, the performances by women of eighty appeared to be directly related to the muscle achievements of men of twenty-five.

That’s good news for industrial designers, Voorbij believes: ”Much is known about the pinching power of men and women in several age categories. But other forces have only been measured in young men, often soldiers.” Now, however, it appears to be possible to relate other forces to one measurement with young men, so that not every movement has to be tested extensively with elderly people.

With elderly people increasingly living on their own, industrial designers wanted to find out how much force these people still have. They should be able to open a jar of vegetables, something in which they don’t often succeed now. The elderly should also be able to operate emergency doors.