Author Description

Over the last decades, demographic change affected the German population in terms of decreases in the proportion of young people and increases in that of elderly people. Both age groups have in common that level of motor performance is impaired, either by maturation and secular declines (children and adolescents) or by biologic aging (seniors). As a consequence, deficits in postural control and muscle strength can be observed in children, adolescents, and seniors. Given these functional limitations, it is not surprising that risk of falling and thus medical care is particularly high in these age groups. Therefore, the objectives of this work were to investigate strength and postural control in young and elderly subjects under specific task conditions (e.g., multi-tasking) and to find out whether resistance or balance training have an effect on these capacities in children, adolescents, and seniors. The results of nine peer-reviewed studies are presented in this work in a condensed and comprehensible way. These findings substantially contribute to the already existing epidemiologic base of knowledge on (a) fall risk assessment and (b) the effects of training on intrinsic fall risk factors like impaired muscle strength and postural control in different age groups. The book concludes with detailed training protocols for therapists and practitioners that proved to be effective and that can be implemented in a school setting and/or in specific exercise groups for balance and strength conditioning.