Aging prevention: triathlon training

Have you guys seen this?? Amazing:

This was from a study published in the Physician and Sports Medicine Journal, which compared athletes and non-athletes from age 40+.

It is commonly believed that with aging comes an inevitable decline from vitality to frailty. This includes feeling weak and often the loss of independence. These declines may have more to do with lifestyle choices, including sedentary living and poor nutrition, than the absolute potential of musculoskeletal aging. In this study, we sought to eliminate the confounding variables of sedentary living and muscle disuse, and answer the question of what really happens to our muscles as we age if we are chronically active. This study and those discussed here show that we are capable of preserving both muscle mass and strength with lifelong physical activity.

We found that chronic intense exercise preserved muscle mass and prevented fat infiltration of muscle in masters athletes.

Note that the "athlete" participants had the following profile:

Forty masters athletes (20 men and 20 women) were included in this study. Subjects were included if they were aged ≥ 40 years, trained for fitness and sports competitions ≥ 4 to 5 times per week, and did not have current sports-related injuries that limited their ability to compete in sports competitions. Many were age-group winners for their sport. The subjects were primarily composed of runners/track and field participants, bikers, and swimmers.

I don't know about you, but this doesn't describe me! One drawback to this study is that it doesn't include those who start exercising later in life. It also doesn't reflect the "semi-active" population, ie. those who might walk regularly and/or have a 3x per week gym routine. I'm loking forward to future studies that explore these two scenarios, but in the meantime this has certainly motivated me to ramp back up on training.

Comments

[todd]

Doesn't describe me either. I'm waiting for the 'somewhere between couch potato and elite masters athlete' study. good luck on your training this year and please post more often. we missed you!

[cheryl]

It was just ONE or TWO people-and no you can't apply to everyone. But it was motivating, wasn't it?