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It is thought that gait initiation (GI) might be an optimal task for identifying postural control deficiencies. Thus, the aim of this study was to clarify the strategies adopted by older subjects during this task. 16 healthy younger and 15 healthy older adults participated in the study. Subjects were instructed to begin forward stepping with their dominant limb in response to an auditory stimulus. The mean muscle activity, co-contraction index, and intra-subject coefficients of variation (intra-subject CVs) of dominant limb muscles in different phases of GI were measured. The level of association between the co-contraction index and intra-subject CV of muscles was also explored. This study showed that in the anticipatory phase, the younger group had larger amplitudes and more intra-subject CVs than older the group, particularly for the tibialis anterior muscle. However, the co-contraction index was greater in older subjects …