Age does not affect the relationship between muscle activation and joint work during incline and decline walking

Older compared with younger adults walk different configurations of mechanical joint work and greater muscle activation but it is unclear if age, walking speed, slope would each affect the relationship between net work. We hypothesized that a unit increase in positive not negative requires older adults. Healthy (age: 22.1 yrs, n = 19) 69.8 16) ascended descended 7° ramp at slow (~1.20 m/s) moderate (~1.50 speeds while lower-extremity marker positions, electromyography, ground reaction force data were collected. Compared to adults, took 11% (incline) 8% (decline) shorter strides, performed 21% less ankle plantarflexor 19% knee extensor (all p < .05). However, age did > .05) regression coefficients integral hip or during ascent, nor dorsiflexor descent. With increased tended changed little across ascent (10 ± 12% vs. −1.0 10%) descent (3.6 10.2% −2.6 7.7%) (p .006, r 0.47). Age does incline decline freely-chosen step lengths. The electromechanical cost production underlie age-related reconfiguration walking.