close
LOGINYou are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles. For unlimited access take a risk-free trial
Endurance and aging: can you turn negatives into positives?
Recent research on endurance performance in aging and older athletes suggests there’s much to be cheerful about. SPB looks at the evidence
It’s a fact of life that once peak endurance performance is attained – typically around the age of 30-35 - athletes will experience a steady decline in maximal exercise capacity, no matter how long or intensely they train. The reason for this decline is primarily due to a combination of reduced muscle mass combined with decreased cardio-respiratory (heart-lung) function. Scientists know this to be the inescapable truth because over the years, numerous studies have shown the following(1-4):
- An athlete’s biological/physical peak is usually reached between ages 20-35. Strength and speed ten to peak at the earlier end of this age range while endurance peaks in the later range.
- During early middle age (40 to 50 years of age), physical activity declines resulting in a typical 5-10kg of body fat gain. Moreover, this decline continues into old age.
- Maximum heart rate also declines with age and (partly because of this fact) maximum aerobic capacity also declines by about 1% per year (although this decline may be stemmed with regular training – see later).
- The mass of fast-twitch muscle fibres (needed to produce power during high-intensity exercise) is most pronounced during the 30s, where studies have shown a decline in power of 3% per annum with 1% per annum every year thereafter for both men and women.
To complicate matters further, the capacity to recover from prolonged or hard bouts of training also diminishes as the years tick by, which means it’s harder to undertake and recover from the increasingly intense training bouts that are needed to minimize fitness losses.
Fatigue and recovery in veteran cyclists
As alluded to above, a common observation from older athletes across all sports is that while performance does decline somewhat with increasing age, it’s the higher levels of fatigue and slower recovery after hard training sessions that is most notable and impactful. These anecdotal observations are well supported by research data. In one Australian study for example, scientists found hard evidence for this phenomenon in cyclists(5).
In the study, eighteen well-trained cyclists (nine ‘veterans’, average age 45 years and nine ‘young’ cyclists, average age 24 years) performed three consecutive days of high-intensity 30-minute cycling time trials intended to induce fatigue, leading to decreased performance. Each day, before, during, and after each time trial, the cyclists’ perceptions of muscle soreness, fatigue, and recovery were all recorded. The good news was that there was no change in time-trial performance over the three days for either group. The bad news was that muscle soreness and perceived recovery changed significantly (for the worse) over the three days in the veteran group, but not in the young group.
Good news
Despite the performance-impacting declines described above, there’s plenty of good news for older endurance athletes. Firstly, the mere act of training means that many of the declines observed in the general (sedentary) population are far less marked in athletes. For example, a number of studies have shown that the age-related decline in maximum heart rate is smaller in athletes than non-athletes(6). This helps athletes in training maintain higher performance levels for longer. Research also shows that older people who undergo vigorous exercise training are likely to experience the same relative benefits as their younger contemporaries(7-10). In other words, older athletes who either begin or step up training intensity in later life can still expect to receive most of the performance gains that they would have experienced had they started much earlier in life!
There are also other factors that can work in the older athlete’s favour, helping to offset the physiological declines and achieve higher levels of performance than might be expected. For instance, with a few years of training experience under the belt, older athletes are more likely to train ‘intelligently’ by adopting a more scientific approach, using a well-structured and balanced training program.
This is exactly what a 2022 study on masters marathon runners by US researchers found(11); these runners were experienced enough to understand that excessive mileage would likely result in overuse injuries, so training volumes were moderated accordingly and most runners also undertook cross training activities (cycling swimming etc) to help avoid biomechanical imbalances. With more experience under the belt, older athletes also tend to be better at understanding their own responses to training, and adapting a training program to suit their body rather than blindly following a ‘one size fits all’ approach. This is in contrast to younger and less experienced runners who are more likely to simply bash out the miles, with far less understanding of the consequences of overtraining and poor recovery(12).
Marathon running
As mentioned above, the mere act of training appears to help mitigate the normal age-related declines in endurance performance. These declines in performance have been extensively studied in a number of previous studies(13-15). However, there’s quite a lot of uncertainty about the exact rate of decline because most of these studies have examined age-group world records in different runners. This presents two problems because a) elite runners holding world records may not be representative of most amateur runners, and b) these declines are arrived at by comparing times from different runners – ie not by following the decline in performance over time in an individual runner.
A far better way of assessing the rate of decline is to use longitudinal studies, tracking the changes in performance with advancing age for the same individuals following a consistent training regimen. Although there’s little data in the literature using this method, a 2021 study examined the age-related decline in running performance of individual sub 3-hour marathoners for five consecutive calendar decades(16).
In this study, the best marathon performances for each decade from the 1970s to the 2010s were analyzed for 40 sub 3-hour runners (39 males and 1 female). Overall, the average personal best performance of these runners was 2hours 23mins at an average age of 28.6 years. The average time elapsed between the first and the last sub 3-hour marathon races in these runners was 32.9 years.
What the data showed was that the time difference in marathon performance between the personal best and the worst performance during the 5th decade of runners averaged 26 minutes (ie 26 minutes slower – see figure 1). This equated to marathon times increasing by around 1 minute and 4 seconds per year – equivalent to a decrease in running speed of 0.67% per year. Further analysis showed that when runners were able to maintain consistent training and racing regimens, they were able to limit the age-related decline in marathon performance to less than 7% per decade, at least until 60 years of age.
Figure 1: Marathon performances over time
Each feint line shows the change in performance for one of the 40 runners studied over five consecutive calendar decades (from 1970s to 2010s). The bold line represents the average changes for all the runners as a whole. From the age of 20, performances tended to improved until around the late 20s, then decline at a rate of around 7% per decade.
This decline is markedly less that than the often quoted figure of around 10% per decade(17), and emphasizes that consistency in training may be a major factor in maintain performance as the years tick by. Remarkably, some runners may be experience even less performance declines with age. For example, one case study on a competitive marathon runner aged 59 found that he managed to limit age-related performance declines to around 5% per decade, across an equivalent time period (five decades)(18). However, being an ex-Olympic marathoner, this is likely to be the exception, not the rule!
Triathlete insights
Research on triathlon performance provides further context for understanding the process of age-related performance decline, because it seems that the nature of endurance activity undertaken also seems to play a role in determining the magnitudes of these declines. Triathlon, with its three disciplines of swimming, cycling and running provides us some interesting data to consider and compare. For example, scientists in one study analysed the age-related declines in swimming, cycling, and running performances for road-based and off-road triathlons(19). They found that in road triathlons, there was a lesser age-related decline in cycling performance compared to running and swimming regardless of age.
Another finding was that the rate of age-related decline in performance for off-road triathlons was significantly greater than for road-based triathlons, suggesting that the extra strength and power demands of off-road biking and trail running takes a greater toll in older triathletes. The obvious implication for older triathletes is that they are more likely to maximise performance potential by choosing road triathlons rather than off-road, and selecting a road triathlon with a relatively long cycling component.
Further evidence that triathlons with relatively long cycling sections might be particularly suited to older triathletes comes from a French study where scientists examined the swimming, cycling, running and total time performances of the top 10 males between 20 and 70 years of age in two consecutive world championships (2006 and 2007) for Olympic and Ironman distances(20). They found that after 55 years of age for Olympic distance and after 50 years of age for Ironman distance, there was a lesser age-related decline in cycling performance compared with running and swimming. They also found that the declines in cycling and running performance at Ironman distance were greater than at Olympic distance, suggesting that while a relatively long cycling section could be advantageous, once the duration of the event becomes very long (ie Ironman length), this advantage may be lost.
A final reason for older endurance athletes to be cheerful concerns those making a late start in endurance competition. In another study on triathletes by scientists from the University of Burgundy, France, researchers looked at the participation and relative gains over time of masters triathletes(21). What emerged from the data is that the relative proportion of older (40+) triathletes competing between 1986 and 2010 in the extremely challenging Hawaii Ironman Triathlon increased drastically, while the proportion of under-40s triathletes participating in the event fell.
More interestingly though was the fact that when the improvements in race performances throughout this period were compared, the older triathletes saw greater performance gains than their younger counterparts. For males over 44 and females over 40, performances as a whole increased very significantly over time, whereas this trend was not observed in the younger age cohorts. Although this data was not derived from longitudinal studies (where the individual performances of athletes are tracked over time for that person), this study nevertheless provides good evidence that older endurance athletes entering competitive sport can expect to see improvements in their own performances, even as they age – presumably because the positive training adaptations gained over time outstrip the decline in performance caused by aging over time.
Practical implications for endurance athletes
If you’re an older endurance athlete engaged in regular competition, how can you apply the information in this article help to maximize your performance as the years tick by? Here are some tips based on the evidence:
- Triathletes - when selecting forthcoming triathlon races, choose road-based events with relatively long cycling sections.
- Listen to your body and be prepared to be flexible when following a training plan.
- Allow longer recovery periods after particularly hard or prolonged training sessions. Pay attention to your subjective feelings (if you don’t feel recovered, you’re almost certainly not).
- Remember that strength, power and flexibility decline disproportionately with advancing years; incorporate some strength and flexibility training into your weekly routine.
- If you are a single-sport athlete, try adding some gentle-moderate cross training activities into your training regime to help reduce biomechanical imbalances, reduce injury and aid recovery.
- Pay careful attention to your nutrition, ensuring that you consume high quality carbohydrates with some quick-releasing protein after every training session to maximise recovery.
- Train intelligently: make sure each session is focussed on developing specific aspects of your endurance performance as efficiently as possible - don’t just grind out ‘junk miles’.
References
1. Sports Medicine 2003; 33(12):877-888
2. Phys. Sportsmed 1990; 18:73
3. J. Appl Physiol 1987; 62:625
4. American J. of Ortho 2002; 31(2):93-98
5. J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 2008 Jun;48(2):272-7
6. J. Appl. Physiol 1997; 82:1508
7. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2001; 33:735
8. Circulation 1991; 83:96
9. Circulation 1993; 88:116
10. Circulation 1994; 89:198
11. Int J Sports Phys Ther. 2022 Apr 1;17(3):501-507
12. Sports Med. 1992;14:320–335
13. Exp. Aging Res. 2010; 6, 407–416
14. Sports Med. 2007 37, 302–305
15. BMC Sports Sci. Med. Rehabil. 2014; 6:31
16. Front Physiol. 2021 Feb 23;12:649282. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2021.649282. eCollection 20
17. Int. J. Sports Physiol. Perform. 2015; 10, 840–847
18. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 2020; 52, 623–626
19. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2011 Aug;111(8):1687-94
20. Int J Sports Med. 2010 Apr;31(4):251-6
21. Age (Dordr) 2013 Jun; 35(3): 953-62
Andrew Hamilton
Latest Issue
Subscribe Today
Newsletter Sign Up
Testimonials
Dr. Alexandra Fandetti-Robin, Back & Body Chiropractic
Elspeth Cowell MSCh DpodM SRCh HCPC reg
William Hunter, Nuffield Health
Subscribe Today
Newsletter Sign Up
Coaches Testimonials
Dr. Alexandra Fandetti-Robin, Back & Body Chiropractic
Elspeth Cowell MSCh DpodM SRCh HCPC reg
William Hunter, Nuffield Health
Subscribe Today
Latest Issue
Keep up with latest sports science research and apply it to maximize performance
Today you have the chance to join a group of athletes, and sports coaches/trainers who all have something special in common...
They use the latest research to improve performance for themselves and their clients - both athletes and sports teams - with help from global specialists in the fields of sports science, sports medicine and sports psychology.
They do this by reading Sports Performance Bulletin, an easy-to-digest but serious-minded journal dedicated to high performance sports. SPB offers a wealth of information and insight into the latest research, in an easily-accessible and understood format, along with a wealth of practical recommendations.
*includes 3 coaching manuals
Get Inspired
All the latest techniques and approaches
Sports Performance Bulletin helps dedicated endurance athletes improve their performance. Sense-checking the latest sports science research, and sourcing evidence and case studies to support findings, Sports Performance Bulletin turns proven insights into easily digestible practical advice. Supporting athletes, coaches and professionals who wish to ensure their guidance and programmes are kept right up to date and based on credible science.
