Twenty-three healthy men, of which 7 young (YM; aged 18-30 years) and 16 older adults (OM; aged 55-65 years) were recruited for the study. All participants underwent medical examination and routine blood and urine analysis. Exclusion criteria were: smoking; regular alcohol consumption; ferromagnetic implants; history of deep vein thrombosis with D-dimer > 500 μg·L-1; acute or chronic skeletal, neuromuscular, metabolic and cardiovascular disease conditions; pulmonary embolism. Participants were informed of the purpose, procedures and potential risk of the study before signing the informed consent. The study was performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the National Ethical Committee of the Slovenian Ministry of Health on April 17, 2012.