Jiahao Pan1 (jiahaopan1012@163.com), Cuixian Liu1, Li Li2 (FACSM) Tai Chi can Improve Postural Control during Upper Limb movement for Healthy Elderly Jiahao Pan1 (jiahaopan1012@163.com), Cuixian Liu1, Li Li2 (FACSM) 1Shanghai University of Sport, P.R. China 2Georgia southern university, U.S.A Background & Purpose Abstract PURPOSE: Aim of the study was to examine the effects of Tai Chi (TC) training on postural control when upright standing was perturbed by upper limb movement. METHODS: Three groups, TC, Brisk walk (BW), and Sedentary (SE) were recruited from local community centers. Participants performed six different upper extremity fitting tasks. During fitting tasks, the COP data was recorded. RESULTS: No significant effects was observed for reaching different distances and fitting different openings between SE & BW for variables. TC group were least effected by upper body motion in both reaching for further distance and fitting object to smaller openings compared with SE &BW. CONCLUSIONS: Long term TC exercise helps reduce the effects of upper body perturbation as measured by posture sway, comparing to the other two groups. Many researches have been testified that postural control could be influenced by ageing. And standing with upper body movement is the important activity in the daily life and close related with fall risks among elderly people. However, physical actives improved posture stability, such as Tai Chi, brisk walk and so on. Therefore, the aim of the study was to examine the effects of Tai Chi training on postural control when upright standing was perturbed by upper limb movement. A. Participants Thirty-six participants aged form 65 to 75 years old were recruited from local community centers (see table 1). Table 1 Demographic information, with no significant difference observed. Participants & Design Results A Table 2. Different COP measures showed TC group affected less by reaching distance (C – close; F- far) DAP(mm) DML(mm) AREA(cm2) VEL(cm/s) BW C 34±2 32±3 17±3 8.1±0.2 F 84±2 42±3 60±6 10±0.3 SE 36±2 26±2 11±2 8.3±0.2 91±3 42±4 54±4 9.8±0.2 TC 30±2 24±2 8±1 9.0±0.3 59±3 25±1 24±4 9.6±0.4 Mass (kg) Height (cm) BMI (kg/m2) TC (n=12) 63.4±9.3 162.5±6.9 24.0±2.9 SE (n=12) 68.3±7.0 163.9±7.0 25.4±3.0 BW (n=12) 62.8±6.6 163.5±6.4 23.5±2.7 Table 3. Different COP measures showed TC group affected less by fitting opening size (L – large; M – medium; S – small) B B. Instrumentation - Force plate -Self-manufactured Fitting board C. Protocols Six different upper extremity fitting tasks. DAP(mm) DML(mm) AREA(cm2) VEL(cm/s) BW L 55±5 33±3 37±6 8.4±0.2 M 56±5 34±3 31±5 10±0.5 S 63±5 44±6 48±9 8.1±0.2 SE 59±6 29±2 30±4 9.8±0.3 62±6 30±3 36±6 9.0±0.3 69±7 TC 44±4 25±3 18±5 43±4 23±1 17±3 9.2±0.4 47±4 24±1 14±2 8.5±0.4 large opening at arm’s length; medium opening at arm’s length; small opening at arm’s length; large opening at 1.3 arm’s length; medium opening at 1.3 arm’s length; small opening at 1.3 arm’s length. D. Center of pressure (COP) data measured DAP(Distance in anterior-posterior direction; DML (Distance in medial-lateral direction); AREA (95% area); VEL (Mean velocity) E. Statistics Three-way ANOVA with repeated measure used to examine the effects of group, reaching distances and opening sizes. Alpha = .05. When reaching for different distances and fitting with different openings for variables, no statistically significant were observed between BW and SE (see table 2&3), TC group was least effected (P<.05) for AREA by upper body motion in reaching for further distance for all variables (see table 2 & figure 1A) compared with BW & SE. TC group was least effected (P<.05) for AREA by upper body motion in fitting object to smaller openings (see table 3 & figure 1B) compared with BW & SE. Figure.1 The 95% area of COP of reaching different distances and fitting different openings. Conclusion Long term TC exercise helps reduce the effects of upper body perturbation as measured by posture sway, comparing to the other two groups.