Are elderly athletes physically different from less active old people?

A study published recently in the Journal of Applied Physiology found inveterate endurance athletes in their 80s with the same aerobic capacity as those half their age. “New Records in Aerobic Power Among Octogenarian Lifelong Endurance Athletes” examined nine endurance athletes from northern Sweden and compared them to a group of healthy men from Indiana in the same age group who only performed the activities of daily living with no history of structured exercise.

Both groups rode exercise bikes as researchers measured oxygen uptake. When the participants reached exhaustion, they had reached maximum oxygen uptake (known as VO2 max). Skeletal muscle biopsies were then taken.

“In this case, 80 is the new 40,” said the study’s lead author, Scott Trappe, director of Ball State University’s Human Performance Laboratory. “These athletes are not who we think of when we consider 80-year-olds because they are in fantastic shape. … They are still actively engaged in competitive events.”

The endurance athletes established new upper limits for aerobic power in men 80 to 91 years old, including a maximum oxygen uptake that was nearly twice that of untrained men their age and comparable to nonendurance-trained men 40 years younger. “In fact, the oldest gentleman was 91 years old, but his aerobic capacity resembles that of a man 50 years younger,” Trappe said. “It was absolutely astounding.”

Based upon the VO2 max findings, the lifelong exercisers have a 50 percent lower all-cause mortality risk compared to the untrained men.

ActiveStyle, Pages 25 on 04/22/2013