Aging: The Problems of High-Intensity Training

Can
the loss of performance with aging be overcome by training? Can you maintain
your 35-year-old aerobic capacity and muscle mass, the keys to aging
performance, when you’re 55 or even 75 years old? Most scientific research
tells us that it’s highly doubtful (Doherty, Faulkner, Foster, Phillips, Raue).
Even though much of this loss appears to be a result of disuse (LaRocca, Leyk, Wroblewski,
Wright), there is no doubt that there is a decline in endurance performance
with age that appears to be inevitable even among elite age group athletes regardless of sport. 

We know, however, that the rate of loss can be slowed if you continue to train
at a workload similar to when you were younger, especially the
intensity of your workouts both in aerobic (Katzel) and strength training (Aagard,
Porter). I wrote about that here and here. But as many readers have told me recently in comments to this blog and in
emails, the problem is an increased incidence of injury resulting from
high-intensity efforts that seem to be especially high among runners. The other
problem is slow recovery. The keys to maintaining aerobic capacity and muscle
mass then are injury prevention and rapid recovery following workouts. I wrote
about recovery and aging a few weeks ago here. So let’s now examine Injury prevention in greater detail.

Modifications
to training are necessary to avoid an increased likelihood of injury. Typically, the older you are the easier it
is to become injured and the slower an injury is likely to heal (Kallinen).
Bones, tendons, ligaments, cartilage and muscles break down and form scar
tissue at lower levels of training stress than they did when you were younger.
An increased likelihood of orthopedic injuries may be the reason runners seem to slow down more than their similarly aged
peers in swimming and cycling. While running is not the only sport athletes get
injured in, it is more likely to produce orthopedic injuries than, for example,
swimming, cycling and cross country skiing. So the normal training stress of
runners often declines at a steeper rate over time. That may well be necessary.

In
terms of continued performance improvement, there is nothing worse than an
injury. It can easily result in a bunch of zeroes in your training log. Missed
workouts mean lost fitness and starting over again.

To
avoid injury, regardless of your sport, there are two things you must always
do. The first is to start at a training stress level you know you are fully
capable of managing. This has to do with how long and intense your workouts are
and your weekly volume of training. The second imperative to avoiding training
setbacks is to be patient with your progress. This is where most athletes make
their greatest mistake. Allow more time at each stage of training than you did
when you were younger. Be patient. Wisdom is supposedly one of the attributes
of age. Apply it to your training.

Increase
your workout durations and intensities slowly over time. Don’t rush to the next
level. It’s too risky. Counterbalance these two workout variables. When you increase the duration of your workouts, decrease their
intensity. When it’s time to increase intensity, decrease duration. For older athletes it's probably wise to avoid increasing both up at the same time. If you do, your risk of injury increases
exponentially. You may have gotten away with a double increase when you were
younger, but it’s now more likely to result in injury.

If
injured the timing of treatment is critical. Don’t wait to seek medical help. Every
athlete, but especially you as an older athlete, need someone in your corner
who can treat injuries, or even niggling aches, when they occur. This could be
a family physician, chiropractor, physical therapist, podiatrist or naturopath
who you trust, who knows your endurance sport and who understands the treatment
of aging athletes. I rely heavily on Nate Koch at Endurance Rehabilitation, a physical therapy practice where I spend my
winters in Scottsdale, Arizona. With my summers in Boulder, Colorado I go to
the Boulder Center for
Sports Medicine and to see Dr. Andy
Pruitt, an old friend and fellow aging cyclist. They’ve both been treating my
aching bones and soft tissues off and on for 11 years. I have complete faith in
their effectiveness when I place myself in their hands as I’ve had to do on
numerous occasions.

Closely
related to injuries is arthritis which becomes increasingly common with advances
in age. The best way to avoid this may well be continued exercise since it is less
common in athletes (Maharam). The research doesn’t tell us, however, if
exercise helps to prevent joint disease or if those who experience it drop out
of their sport becoming sedentary and so skew the data. If you suffer from
arthritis you have probably become adept at knowing not only what aggravates
it, but also how to modify your training to accommodate it until the inflammation
subsides. Prescribed medications may well be necessary at these times.

In
my next post I’ll take a look at other aspects of injury prevention and workout
recovery.

References

Aagard
P, Svetta C, Caserotti P, Magnusson SP, Kjaer M. 2010. Role of the nervous
system in sarcopenia and muscle atrophy with aging: strength training as a
countermeasure. Scand J Med Sci Sports
20(1):49-64.

Doherty
TJ. 2003. Invited review: aging and sarcopenia. J Appl Physiol 95(4):1717-27.

Faulkner
JA, Larkin LM, Claflin DR, Brooks SV. 2007. Age-related changes in the
structure and function of skeletal muscles. Clin
Exp Pharmacol Physiol 34(110:1091-6.

Foster
C, Wright G, Battista RA, Porcari JP. 2007. Training in the aging athlete. Curr Sports Med Rep 6(3):200-6.

Kallinen
M, Markku A. 1995. Aging, physical activity and sports injuries. An overview of
common sports injuries in the elderly. Sports
Med 20:41-52.

Katzell
LI, Sorkin JD, Fleg JL. 2001. A comparison of longitudinal changes in aerobic
fitness in older endurance athletes and sedentary men. J Am Geriatr Soc 49(12):1657-64.

LaRocca
TJ, Seals DR, Pierce GL. 2010. Leukocyte telomere length is preserved with
aging in endurance exercise-trained adults and related to maximal aerobic
capacity. Mech Ageing Dev
131(2):165-7.

Leyk
D, Erley O, Gorges W, et al. 2009. Performance, training and lifestyle
parameters of marathon runners aged 20-80 years: results of the PACE-study. Int J Sports Med 30(5):360-5.

Maharam
LG, Bauman PA, Kalman D, et al. 1999. Masters athletes: factors affecting
performance. Sports Med 28(4):273-85.

Porter
MM. 2001. The effects of strength training on sarcopenia. Can J Appl Physiol 26(1):123-41.

Phillips
BE, Williams JP, Gustafsson T, et al. 2013. Molecular networks of human muscle
adaptation to exercise and age. PLOS
Genetics 9(3):e1003389.

Raue
U, Slivka D, Minchev K, Trappe S. 2009. Improvements in whole muscle and myocellular function are limited with
high-intensity resistance training in octogenarian women. J Appl Physiol 106(5):1611-7.

Wright
VJ. 2012. Masterful care of the aging triathlete. Sports Med Arthrosc 20(4):23-6.