THE SKINNY
Posts:506
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| 06/11/2013 09:15 AM |
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why does it take longer to recover as you get older?
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| How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. |
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jmdirt
Posts:775
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| 06/11/2013 10:22 AM |
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| In the most simple terms: training creates muscle damage, as we age the muscle damage becomes more severe plus it takes our bodies longer to repair the damage. There are specific physiological and metabolic things occurring but that discussion/explanation gets really long. |
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C2K_Rider
Posts:173
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| 06/11/2013 01:10 PM |
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Almost totally hormone related. You have lower hormonal response to exercise than when young, so less effect on recovery. Even with continued heavy exercise there is a steady decline in performance and recovery over the decades due to lower and lower hormone levels and response to exercise. BTW, Sedentary people have it even worse - they age much faster than athletes!
Another interesting finding is that older people digest protein less efficiently so even if you eat the same as you have in the past you may actually be getting less protein.
Joe Friel is known for saying older athletes 'pee away" protein due to "acid imbalance." But that is not really true; the body spends a lot of energy maintaining homeostasis so you are not likely to have an "acid imbalance" unless it is a pathological condition. Rather, you simply are not eating enough protein to keep your muscles happy.
One thing for cyclists to do as they get older is to do more and more time in the weight room. That both keeps, or can increase, muscle mass, and also keeps or increases bone density. |
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C2K_Rider
Posts:173
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| 06/11/2013 01:35 PM |
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| I got a little more curious and looked up a few papers. It seems proteins produced by exercise-induced DNA activation, like Heat Shock Proteins (HSP) play a large role in muscle rebuilding. They are greatly increased during and after various kinds of exercise (there are many different HSP's). However, in older people (50+) the levels produced are reduced, and are reduced more and more as aging progresses. Extra exercise will not increase the HSP beyond a certain level, so recovery is greatly reduced.
As a sidenote, it is probably genetically programmed extra-high levels of these types of proteins that allow elite athletes to recover faster than average people. Transgenic mice designed to have extra levels of certain HSP recovered twice as fast from extreme muscle damage as normal mice did. |
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Dale
Posts:1767
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| 06/11/2013 01:49 PM |
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The other thing I don't get is how long it takes to recover from a crash. I've been crashing and healing for decades, you'd think with that much practice I'd be really good at it and be faster not slower  |
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jmdirt
Posts:775
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| 06/11/2013 02:45 PM |
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I had a mad genius physiology prof who said (more than once) that the endocrine system hates old people. In '92 or '93 I remember him talking about finding a safe way to increase T production in 40+ men because he would become instantly rich. His idea is reality now (though I'm not sure how safe it is).
BTW: Protein research dropped as endocrine tech started raking in the $$. I remember reading research one time about a specific protein and how it greatly reduced sarco cell damage in weight lifters. The weightlifters who had a the most of this protein were able to progress much faster. |
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jmdirt
Posts:775
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| 06/11/2013 02:46 PM |
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I had a mad genius physiology prof who said (more than once) that the endocrine system hates old people. In '92 or '93 I remember him talking about finding a safe way to increase T production in 40+ men because he would become instantly rich. His idea is reality now (though I'm not sure how safe it is).
BTW: Protein research dropped as endocrine tech started raking in the $$. I remember reading research one time about a specific protein and how it greatly reduced sarco cell damage in weight lifters. The weightlifters who had a the most of this protein were able to progress much faster. |
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C2K_Rider
Posts:173
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| 06/11/2013 03:37 PM |
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Posted By Dale Dale on 06/11/2013 01:49 PM
The other thing I don't get is how long it takes to recover from a crash. I've been crashing and healing for decades, you'd think with that much practice I'd be really good at it and be faster not slower
You have to crash more intensely as you get older to get the same "benefit."  |
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Dale
Posts:1767
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| 06/11/2013 04:50 PM |
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| If it FEELS more intense does that count? |
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 06/11/2013 05:20 PM |
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| Relativity theory applies here. It's generally recognized that time seems to pass faster as you get older. That in turn leads to impatience for things that don't keep up. Huh, what! I am still not recovered?! |
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jacques_anquetil
Posts:245
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| 06/11/2013 08:20 PM |
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this is an interesting article: http://philmaffetone.com/thesun.cfm
The recent discussion about Maffetone led me to his site, where I read a bunch of good stuff. in this article, he posits that vitamin D is "really a unique steroid hormone" that can improve athletic performance.
take from it what you will, but my entirely anecdotal sampling evidence of one seems to support the theory. I've been taking Vit D all through the fall, winter and spring steady until now, 4,000IU daily and have noticed a marked improvement in recovery and performance. could be hogwash i dunno but seems to work. |
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