It’s often acknowledged that most cardio capability (VO2Max) declines with age at a fee of about 10% per decade in sedentary folks, however that those that proceed to do health coaching will solely lose this capability at about 5% per decade. A typical examine upon which this rule of thumb is predicated is ref. 1. This is likely one of the causes for the maxim “use it or lose it”. It seems to be “actually use it so that you lose it extra slowly”. Nevertheless it’s necessary as a result of the distinction between 5% and 10% is large for high quality of life. Actions of each day dwelling like with the ability to go up stairs develop into very tough or inconceivable if VO2Max goes under about 20. This may occur by the point you might be about 70 or 80 if sedentary, however may be delayed till greater than 100 years of age in the event you preserve coaching.
One other necessary issue is that it has been proven that cardio capability may be regained considerably over a number of months of coaching in older individuals who have beforehand been sedentary (Ref 2). So in the event you get to a sure age, and understand you’re slowing down (“Why am I beginning to get winded strolling over to the mailbox?”), you possibly can readily flip the clock again a number of many years, fitness-wise, by getting critical about coaching to get in form.
However a 2022 meta-analysis [2] regarded on the information from quite a lot of earlier research to reexamine this matter. I realized of this from Alex Hutchinson’s “Sweat Science” in Outdoors Journal (there could also be a pay wall on the hyperlink however they often enable you a number of free peeks at articles). Crucial discovering is that even critical athletes who proceed coaching, have a tendency to cut back their coaching quantity (variety of hours per week) over time. Amongst those that sustain their quantity, the speed of loss in VO2Max is even smaller, extra like 2.5% per decade. Alex identified that coach Alan Couzens, primarily based on information from his personal athletes, goes additional to counsel {that a} decline in health could also be prevented totally if we improve our coaching quantity as we age. Coach Couzens got here up with the rule of thumb that we now have to coach our age, in hours, every month, to realize this. So when you’re 80 you simply have to coach 80 hours per 30 days, or 20 hours every week. It is a lot, clearly, and nicely past the 150 minutes (2 1/2 hours) every week of coaching usually really helpful by well being authorities.
However this will likely really be possible for a few of us who’re retired and for whom health is our pastime. By coincidence, I at present do practice for about 2 1/2 hours per day on common, as a result of I take pleasure in it, which precisely meets Couzens’ rule. If I simply bump it up a bit every year, and by the point I’m 80 I do about 3 hours per day, does that imply I’ll lose no health in any respect? I’ll be excited to search out out 10 years from now.
All of this has oversimplified the difficulty by solely contemplating coaching quantity and never depth. Varied strategies exist for bettering VO2MAX considerably with decrease quantity and better depth coaching. Most likely essentially the most well-known is the Tabata protocol, which takes solely 4 minutes complete however entails 8 rounds of 20 seconds of sprinting with solely 10 seconds of restoration in between. Time-efficient, however very robust! I might speculate that those that practice with significantly much less quantity, however preserve their depth excessive sufficient, might additionally combat off the decline in health with age fairly nicely. I’ve additionally seen the other impact. There are cyclists within the membership I journey with which have stored their coaching quantity fairly excessive for many years, however their depth has decreased over time (they’ve both gotten slower or are doing fewer climbs). So I think conserving quantity excessive and persevering with to do some high-intensity work are each necessary to forestall getting slower.
What about for these of us for which health is not a pastime and usually are not notably excited on the prospect of coaching for hours per day? I might say simply attempt to get the general public well being suggestion of two 1/2 hours per week of exercise. And throw in some higher-intensity stuff like strolling up stairs or biking up hills not less than as soon as every week (different elements of health like resistance coaching and stability coaching are additionally necessary). Your health might decline some over time, however quite a bit lower than for a sedentary individual, and also you’ll nonetheless have the ability to do actions of each day dwelling at 100. Not a nasty consequence.
References
- Rogers, M, et al, “Decline in VO2max with growing old in grasp athletes and sedentary males”, J Appl Physiol, 1990
- Burtscher, J, et al, “The Influence of Coaching on the Lack of Cardiorespiratory Health in Growing older Masters Endurance Athletes”, Int J Environ Res Public Well being, 2022
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