Older Exercisers Recover as Fast as Children
As lifelong exercisers age, they find they can’t hit a
tennis ball or golf ball as hard, run as fast, lift as heavy, or
perform as well, whatever their sport. A study from Yokohama
City University in Japan shows that this gradual decline is caused
by loss of muscle strength. However, the most significant finding
of the study was that older men can recover from hard workouts
as quickly as younger men (Applied Physiology, Nutrition and
Metabolism, June 2006). Another encouraging study in the same
journal, from the University of Southern California in Los
Angeles, shows that men over 60 who exercise regularly are far
stronger than their non-exercising counterparts.
A study from Brock University in Canada also shows that
older people can recover from hard exercise as fast as young
children can (Exercise and Sports Science Reviews, July 2006).
The authors feel that previous studies on the subject are flawed.
Since children cannot exercise at the same intensity as older
people can, they do not put as much stress on their muscles as
older people do and therefore do not suffer as much muscle
damage. It is the decreased intensity causing less muscle
damage that allows children to appear to recover faster from
all-out exercise. Children can put only about 60 to 80 percent of
the power per weight exerted by adults. They do not work as
hard during intense exercise, evidenced by far less lactic acid in
their blood streams. Children can do more repeat sets of lifting
heavy weights because they do not lift as close to their maximum
as adults do. They can do more “attempted all out” wind sprints
than adults do because they don’t work as close to their
maximum. So the decline in athletic performance with aging is
not caused by failure to recover from hard exercise.
If you are an older athlete who competes in sports, you
will be able to recover from your hard training days as fast as
younger athletes, but you will gradually lose strength, speed and
coordination over the years. Every muscle in your body is made
of millions of individual fibers. Each fiber is enervated by a single
nerve that causes it to contract. With aging, you lose nerve
fibers. So with each loss of a nerve fiber, you lose use of the
corresponding muscle fiber and, with fewer functioning muscle
fibers, you lose strength. Coordination drops also because of the
loss of nerve fibers. Since speed depends on strength, you also
lose speed. However, if you exercise regularly, you enlarge each
of the remaining individual muscle fibers. Even if you have fewer
functioning fibers, the larger individual fibers can generate more
force to make you stronger. The good news from these studies
is that the same training principles apply at any age. Even if you
cannot compete effectively against younger people, you are likely
to find yourself winning age-group competitions as your peers
drop out. If you are not a regular exerciser, it’s never too late to
start.
Checked 9/29/08