Aging

What happens to our bodies as we Age?
As we all know, as we age our bodies under go all kinds of physiological changes. 
As athletes we tend to notice these changes more drastically than most people,
mainly because we can't perform at the levels we used to.  But just what are these
changes?  Why do they happen and is there anything we can do to stop them or at
least slow them down?

Here at Outside Sport it has been our passion for many years to answer these
questions.  We have seen many older athletes performing at levels once only thought
to be achieved by people half their ages. We wanted to know these athletes secrets. 
Lets look at the main factors that contribute to your performance decline and what you
can do about it.

The physiological changes:

  •  Lower maximum heart rate

  •  Lower stroke volume and cardiac output

  •  Increase in blood pressure

  •  Growth hormone production decrease

  •   Increase in body fluid acidity

  •   Decrease in muscle mass and tone

  •  Weakening of the immune system

  •  Shrinking and decrease in elasticity of
      ligaments and tendons

There are many more changes but these are the main ones the effect athletic performance.

Lower maximum heart rate
As you age your maximum heart rate will decrease, there is nothing you can do about that.  But
you can slow the process as well as how much lower it goes, by keeping up the intensity in your
hard workouts.  As you age the intensity of your hard workout becomes far more important than
volume.  It doesn't help you to do a two and a half minute interval if you can't keep your pace for
the full time.  It is of far more benefit to do a one and half minute interval at full pace.  By doing
the longer interval you are just stressing your body more without the added fitness benefit.  As
you age you cannot sustain the volume of training you used to, but you can keep the same fitness
levels  by paying attention to quality rather than quantity.  By adding two quality intensity workouts a week, you can slow the decrease in your maximum heart rate as well as the number of beats it goes down.  More on this in the Training section.

Lower stroke volume and cardiac output
This is another factor in the aging process, your heart's stroke volume and cardiac output will
decrease.  But as athletes the decrease is far less because of the regular exercise we get. 
The heart is a muscle and like any other muscle it needs be exercised to maintain it's condition.
None the less stroke volume and cardiac output will decrease over time.  To maintain yours at
the highest level possible it's very important that your long workouts be done at a slow pace. 
This will train your heart to pump with the most volume with each beat.  More on the pace of your
long workouts in the Training section.

Increase in blood pressure:
The good news here is that you are already doing the best thing possible to maintain a good
healthy blood pressure and that is regular exercise.  A healthy diet with lots of fruit and vegetables
plays an important part, but most importantly is a low sodium diet.  Stay away from the salt. 
There are occasions when salt is important, this is explained in the Nutrition section, but for the
most part avoid it.

Growth hormone production decrease                              
As we age the production of this powerful hormone is decreased.  Endurance type exercise also depletes the body of HGH.  This is a large contributing factor to the loss of muscle mass, muscle strength, and the muscles ability to repair itself quickly.  Studies have shown that as little as two grams of pure form L-Glutamine can stimulate the production of HGH, substantially increasing the levels found in the body.  Not only is HGH the most powerful stimulator of muscle growth in the body, it also provides you with the added benefit of helping the body burn fat.  By supplementing your diet with a high quality pure form pharmaceutical grade L-Glutamine and the addition of Whey Isolate Protein Powder,  you can offset the effects of growth hormone production decrease and see gains in muscle mass and tone.

Increase in body fluid acidity
As we age our blood and other fluids become increasingly more acidic, our bodies do a fairly
good job of compromising and maintaining a relatively good Ph level.  But for those of us who
exercise, the acidic state that follows exercise really increases the loss of nitrogen and calcium. 
The body will then take calcium from the bones and nitrogen from the muscles to regulate Ph
levels.  While this does balance the bodies fluids, it deprives the muscles of valuable structural
resources to repair the muscle damage caused by exercising.  Over time your bones also suffer
from lack of calcium.  Research has shown by consuming a specifically formulated recovery drink
containing all the essential and non-essential amino acids and a small amount of a nitrogen rich
food such as raisons or spinach within 30 minutes of exercise can have dramatic results. 

Shrinking and decrease in elasticity of ligaments and tendons
Another inevitable part of aging, but this one is completely and easily preventable.  Stretching
is a very important part of keeping your performance up as well as preventing injury.  When
and how you stretch are crucial. Never stretch when your muscles are cold.  Warm up at least
10 minutes before stretching.  More on stretching in the Training section.

Decrease in muscle mass and tone                              
This natural part of the aging process really plays a large part in decreased performance.  While you will never be able to build muscle like you could in your twenties you can still maintain a good muscle mass, tone and have just about as much strength.  In order to accomplish this you must incorporate resistance training into your training plan and supplement your diet with a pure form branched chain amino acid like out L-Glutamine and high quality pure protein like our pharmaceutical grade Whey Isolate Protein.  As important as the supplements are the times you take them in relationship to your workouts.  More on this in the Nutrition section.
 

Weakening of the immune system
As an athlete your immune system is put under allot of stress from all the exercise.  As you age
your already weakened immune system becomes even weaker.  A healthy diet of fruit and
vegetables will help, but in the real world it is not easy to eat enough of them to give your immune
system the boost it really needs.  Supplementing your diet with high grade vitamins A, B, C, D and E
will really help your immune system become strong once again.  Not only must the vitamins be
of a high quality and fresh to get he benefits but they must be taken with food in your stomach or
all you end up with is a high quality vitamin urine.