Just because you're getting older, doesn't mean you have to stop training hard - you just have to do it differently.
With age comes wisdom (especially if you listen to The Knowledge). But what also comes is a need for increased recovery, strength training, and changes to your overall training approach. In this episode, Wahoo Sports Scientists Neal Henderson and Jeff Hoobler examine what happens to athletes after 40 and how to keep improving as you age.
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Neal 0:00
Hello, and welcome back to another episode of The Knowledge Podcast by Wahoo. I am Neal Henderson.
Jeff Hoobler 0:05
And I'm Jeff Hoobler. And today we're talking about how older athletes need to adapt their training and recovery to perform at their best.
Neal 0:13
When we talk about older athletes, we're probably gonna say generally over 40 years of age, though, some folks might not see bigger impacts with age until they're in their mid or late 40s, or even in their 50s. By and large, though, Masters athlete 4050 Plus does cover a pretty broad range. That's pretty
Jeff Hoobler 0:29
A broad range, and you still have some really high-caliber athletes in that field.
Neal 0:35
Absolutely. Yes. One of the key things that we think about with age is that recovery is super important that changes what kind of recovery we need from a given workout are typically lengthened as we get older, a great way that we think about this is from a quote when I was racing NextEra as I was in my 20s. And there's a guy Ned overland, who's absolutely a legend, he won the first UCI mountain bike world championships out in Durango, Colorado, he was in his I think, at least mid-30s at the time was one that but he continued to race and continues to race. Now. He was in his 40s and still winning exterra World Championships beating the best young up and comers in their 20s at the Olympic level, and he was still beating them. And, you know, I would talk to him at races and something that he would say in terms of his training, he said, Well, it takes me now 16 weeks to do the training that I used to do in 12 weeks. And so the biggest difference was not that he couldn't do the same hard, intense sessions, it is that it took longer to recover between those. And so we had to space them out more instead of one or maybe two days between some of those really hard sessions. It took two and three days.
Jeff Hoobler 1:41
And we know that anecdotally, we're just speaking from experience, yet at 35 years old, I can still do some pretty big efforts and perform well. But it does take longer to recover. You know, there are a few reasons that we know why it takes that time.
Neal 1:57
First thing with that increased recovery time, one of the big things that we have, as an associated causes changes in our basically hormone levels, especially androgen levels, like testosterone and growth hormone, both of those things are kind of in that anabolic range, they help us rebuild when we train, we break our bodies down. And if we have lower levels of those anabolic hormones, we have a slower rate of recovery compared to when we're younger. So just effectively net a lower rate of protein resynthesis, rebuilding what we've broken down,
Jeff Hoobler 2:28
one of the other things that we see a decrease in is cardiovascular capacity, peak heart rate coming down with age, and this gives us a little more direct insight on kind of how that happens.
Neal 2:39
There are some old ideas out there that looked at peak heart rate and said 20 minus h equals max heart rate or is approximate for and so if you think about well, every year, you get one year older, your max heart rate by the definition of that formula would be decreasing by one beat, which is not necessarily true, we know that with age, those who continue to exercise and train at high levels have a much lesser reduction in heart rate than one beat per year. And in many cases that can be half of that range, or in some cases even less, I've definitely seen a decrease in my heart rate from when I was in my 20s to now in my late 40s. Probably a 10 beat per minute over two decades, over 20 years. So I'm closer to that half a beat per year, potentially it didn't all happen, you know, each year losing half a beat or anything like that it's kind of in fits and starts a little bit, some years, you know kind of the same and then may drop a couple of beats from one year to the next and then stay steady for a couple of years. So I don't think there's an absolute way of looking at things. So you just have to look at how is your body adapting? And what is your peak heart rate over time?
Jeff Hoobler 3:44
Definitely, I'm on the other side of that where my peak heart rate is still pretty darn close to where it was 20 years ago. So there is there's definitely that individual difference there. Yeah.
Neal 3:56
And keep in mind, if your peak heart rate changes, your threshold is also likely to change. And then all of your training zones are going to be different than they were as you age. So make sure that you're paying attention and adjusting those over time. Just like your power targets, you know, change over the course of the season. You can see heart rate changes over the course of multiple years.
Jeff Hoobler 4:16
Yeah, and just to touch on that those decreases aren't good or bad. They just are Yeah, we just need to pay attention to them. And then be responsive
Neal 4:24
train where you're at what's real for you,
Jeff Hoobler 4:27
not what used to be, not what it used to be.
Neal 4:30
Another big change that we do see in AR is a decrease in bone density, which again happens with age which is a normal thing. It's important to have bone-loading activity as if you are predominantly a cyclist. So doing some sort of strength training and some sort of another weight-bearing exercise, whether it's jumping rope or going for hikes, walks, or little jogs. Those are good things for maintaining bone density even though there's going to be some reduction and then we also see some reduction in muscle mass with age specifically that decrease is associated more with our fast-twitch muscle fibers.
Jeff Hoobler 5:03
This is probably one of the areas that that older athletes actually recognize the most, you can literally see it in the mirror and you feel it, it doesn't have to go away, you can attenuate that loss by continuing to do strength training it just as Neil said, You've got to hit those fast efforts or high force efforts to maintain that
Unknown Speaker 5:22
fast-twitch. Exactly, use it or lose it.
Jeff Hoobler 5:25
One of the other things that we see here is a delayed inflammatory response. Most people are familiar with Dom's or delayed onset muscle soreness, also called exercise-induced muscle injury, right. And that typically ranges from 36 to 72 hours. But we know that that takes a little bit longer as you age into the later range of that.
Neal 5:49
Yeah, definitely with a younger athlete when they do some unaccustomed exercise, especially eccentric muscle exercise. So when we do strength training, we're in the lowering phase, or if you run downhill, or if you run it all, every time you're step when your foot hit hits the ground, there's a little bit of nice centric muscle action, but especially running downhill, or if you're hiking and carried a backpack and going down hills, those are the things that are really going to kind of tear up your muscle fibers and cause a lot more of that muscle injury or and the associated muscle soreness. Clearly, when we're younger, that hits earlier and clears away quickly as we age. I know that 48 hours is typically where I really peak now, where before it used to be for sure, within the first 24
Jeff Hoobler 6:29
hours. And the sad thing is is your memory might be off by then you're like what did I do?
Neal 6:34
Two days ago, what did I do differently two days ago? Yeah, it's not yesterday, what I do and so yeah, if you have any memory loss, geez, this is gonna be a double whammy. I don't even remember what I did to get this sore.
Jeff Hoobler 6:45
But in that part of that is that, as we mentioned a moment ago that lower protein synthesis rate just takes a little bit longer to repair tissue damage.
Neal 6:55
Yep. And there are some nutritional things that we'll talk about that can help you at least pay attention and have the best possible recovery from those kinds of efforts. There's also a difference that we do see, definitely between men and women, between sexes, there are some changes with age that are different in a way, those values would tend to be higher in men compared to women of the same age. But as both men and women age, there's actually a greater loss for men in those higher in those levels of strength. And that peak power and anaerobic capacity compared to women, women will still have a reduction in time as they age, but the reductions are actually even bigger for men. So make sure that you're adjusting your training appropriately to both address those, but then also know where your current targets are not what you used to do, not what you did five years ago, but what can you do right now,
Jeff Hoobler 7:40
when we look at all those things, that seems a little depressing. It's like, Oh, my God, do it. But the reality is, is, as long as you have a good perspective on what's happening, and understand these changes, you can deal with it quite well, mentally and emotionally. And you look at these decreases, oh, I can't hit the same power, I can hit the same, you know, Sprint, power, FTP, whatever, it's, I think it's just really important to put that in perspective, it doesn't mean you still can't go fast. It doesn't mean you can't perform at a high level if we just have to change those expectations, and then how we manage what we
Neal 8:16
have. And in some cases, that peak over time may be a little bit slower, but you can still change within a given year, you're always going to start at some level you do proper training, you're going to be able to create change in your capacity. And in some cases, maintaining is gaining in that respect as well. If we're similar to where we were last year, at a certain point, well, in a lot of cases, hey, that's, that's a win.
Jeff Hoobler 8:35
Maybe let's shift this just a little bit. So we know that we're going to have losses, and some of the performance targets might decline. But let's talk about what can we do to combat that and fight back against it, you know, specifically one of the things that we talked about was the strength and the tissue loss.
Neal 8:52
So you're going to need to continue or add strength training true strength training to what you do in your season, not just off-season, this becomes a year-round requirement to stay healthy, and to have your best potential to perform strength training is very important. The other aspect that you can do is specifically high force type of efforts on the pedal. So like standing starts are great for that big gear work, like sustained endurance, like that may not necessarily change muscular strength, muscular endurance, yes, but you really need to do more of those starts and pure sprint, short, six, eight-second type efforts to really try to have that maintained connection to those fast-twitch muscle fibers. Even cadence builds another thing that high speed. So if you are maintaining your training properly, then you're going to have to do a couple other, you know, modify your training in a couple of other ways. Number one, your recovery time, you're going to need more days between your harder workouts. So you're going to need potentially two, three, or even four days between some of your really hard sessions. So that may mean that you can only do one or two really high-quality sessions a week during phases of your turn. Reading when you're doing a lot.
Jeff Hoobler 10:01
Absolutely. So don't be stubborn. And think that you have to do what you did when you were 25. Yeah, just pay attention. One of the other things is sleep, right? We know this to be the best recovery mechanism.
Neal 10:20
Yep, recovery occurs at rest, right, we have to stress our body to create a change. But if we do not recover from that, sleep is one of those times when we're able to recover. So you can listen to episode 35, and the knowledge podcast while here and catch up on some of the aspects of sleep that are discussed there to help optimize that.
Jeff Hoobler 10:38
Yeah, absolutely. One of the other highlights is fueling, you know, during and post-workout fueling, and we touch on that in Episode 16, of the knowledge podcast. But fueling at the right time with the right ingredients is absolutely key. You know, protein, we talked about protein synthesis, making sure that you have a little bit of protein in your recovery drink, and then throughout the day, is very important. And if you want more specifics on those exact amounts, check out episode 16.
Neal 11:13
Yeah, though, I will mention that somewhere between a three to one or four to one ratio of carbohydrate to protein in that recovery definitely will provide the best benefit in terms of growth hormone associated with your nutrition and taking that post-workout fueling. And so your overall protein needs potentially as you age if you especially are maintaining your strength levels, having a little bit higher, on the higher end of protein intake, probably closer to one gram per kilogram of body weight is an important thing, again, year-round to stay healthy.
Jeff Hoobler 11:45
Absolutely. And one of the other things is, is common sense. It's body maintenance, you know, taking care of your tissues, you can check out Episode 11, we talk about active and passive recovery, but really taking care of your body so that, you know, it's just like, you know, a vehicle, you can't expect to drive it into the ground, and then have it not break down on you. So take care of it.
Neal 12:10
And so one thing I want to make sure that we talk about is it's all not negative, you know, not everything is bad as we age, there are things that we have. So we develop potentially some things that allow us to perform even better, some of that being just having a little bit of patience. In some cases, I know I've sometimes been patient, sometimes, but sometimes not. And in racing, I've learned at times that I can be a little more patient, and I've learned how to pace a little bit better after having some failures earlier. And as a younger athlete, I know what I need to do in terms of fueling to have success. I know where my strengths are, and my weaknesses are relative to others. And I can try to maximize what those strengths are. And I know, Jeff, you have some tricks up your sleeve, right, as an older athlete that you can employ successfully.
Jeff Hoobler 12:57
Yeah, well, you know, knowing your strengths and weaknesses is key, and then knowing where to save energy, right? And I've shifted now to you know, and this is racing versus training, but thinking about the outcome, or the process versus output, not just putting out the highest wattage, right, you can do that and just waste your time. Obviously, that's not a good strategy. And with the experience, do you think about what is the overall goal here? And how am I going to manage my resources to get those things done? So absolutely, experience plays a huge, huge part. And one step further on that experience is making the wrong decisions when I was younger, you know, bulking, not eating at the right time not eating enough. Just not preparing.
Neal 13:48
Yeah, experience is a great teacher, even when those experiences may at the moment be negative, you'll learn something and takeaway, and hopefully, you don't repeat as many of those same lessons over time.
Jeff Hoobler 13:58
Speaking of takeaways, let's give you a couple from one of my favorite movies. It's not over till we say it's over. That'd be Bluto or John Pelosi from Animal House. Yep. If we look at it, yes. It's, it's not all negative. Yes, the output is going to decline gradually. But we can still perform at a very, very high level as older athletes.
Neal 14:25
Yep. The next thing is making sure you are adding strength training to your program if you haven't, and maintaining it year-round. If you've only done it seasonally in the past, it is something that you just got to do all the time. And your future older, older self will be thanking you for maintaining your strength levels and your fast-twitch fibers because it's also going to make you be more stable and less likely to have falls when you get older.
Jeff Hoobler 14:52
Yeah, that's a whole nother topic that we're gonna have to get into. But
Unknown Speaker 14:54
yeah, I planted a tiny seed there, Jeff. He did.
Jeff Hoobler 14:57
And the last thing is proud or touch recovery, put your ego away and put your feet up the, on the couch, and, and recover. And, you know, pay attention to those, those little things, getting a recovery drink when you should instead of waiting three hours after your ride or your workout.
Neal 15:16
So, if you put all those things together, we're not going to say that you're going to hit your absolute best when you get older. But here's a cool example. If you've done the week with me, the Velodrome ride when there's an effort with a guy Steve Warli. Last year, he turned 70 years old, he went down to Aguascalientes, Mexico to the Velodrome there and he rode both a world record for the 2k individual pursuit for his age group in the 70s 74. And not just that, but it was the fastest ever 2k that he had personally written at eight. And that includes he had been racing that you know, at Nationals and winning nationals from times in his 50s. So over nearly 20 years, he still hit his highest ever result. And so that is clearly one of those things that man more as possible. If you don't put any limits on things and you pay attention to these little things.
Jeff Hoobler 16:10
That's awesome. It's not over. We say it's over.
Neal 16:13
You gotta Jeff. Well, hopefully, you've been able to take away some useful information on this topic and that this will help you be a better endurance athlete both now and in the future. Right on.
Jeff Hoobler 16:25
That's another episode. We'll see you next time.