Proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation and strength training to gain muscle strength in elderly women

Introduction: The world population is aging, and this leads to progressive physiological changes and increased incidence of acute and chronic degenerative diseases. In this sense, one of the main changes occurring during this period is sarcopenia, characterized by decreased skeletal muscle mass. Objective: To perform comparative analyze of results of proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) techniques and strength training to gain muscle strength of biceps and quadriceps and grip in the elderly. Method: This is a prospective randomized study with purposive sample of 17 elderly patients undergoing a program of strength training and evaluation with a dynamometer, before and after applying the treatment protocol. After evaluation, subjects were randomly divided into two groups: PNF and Bodybuilding. Results: The group trained with PNF had more significant gain in muscle strength, biceps (p=0.0392*) and quadriceps (p=0.0230*) did not show statistically significant relevance in the grip (p=0.1075). In the group trained with weights there was no statistically significant difference: biceps (p=0.5338), quadriceps femoris (p=0.0679) and palmar (p=0.3758). Comparing both techniques, however, there was no statistical difference: biceps (p=0.5739), quadriceps (p=0.8450) and palmar (p=0.2457). Conclusion: This study showed that the period of 12 weeks of intervention seems to be sufficient to achieve gains in muscle strength with PNF technique, but when comparing the two techniques it was not statistically significant.