The rate of both processes is comparatively high, but as PCr stores are limited (sufficient for approx. Short-term muscle power (within tens of seconds) depends on the degradation of ATP and its replenishment from phosphocreatine (PCr) ( di Prampero 1981). Taken together, these observations seem to suggest that endurance performance is indeed more affected by age than sprinting. In line with these observations, master swimmers seem to have a greater decline of performance in long-distance events than in short-distance events ( Tanaka & Seals 1997 Donato et al. (2003) on masters' running world records and by Stones & Kozma (1980) on regional running records suggest that performance in distance events would decline more rapidly with age than sprinting performance. It was concluded from this that ‘strength deteriorates faster than stamina’. Furthermore, within the different running disciplines, the decline is more rapid for the speed over 200 m than that in the marathon run. ![]() Performance for shot put and discus throwing declines more rapidly with age than that for running disciplines. 1974) yielded an exponential decline of running speed with age ( Moore 1975). A previous analysis of track and field regional records from different age classes ( Shepard et al. In this sense, record data from master athletes can be regarded as a ‘virtual’ cross-sectional study that can provide important insights into the ageing process. an irreversible biological process) as opposed to sedentarism or co-morbidity, two other common factors that engender age-related functional declines. Master athletes can consequently be regarded as a ‘model population’ for the study of ageing, as they allow assessment of the relative contribution of senescence (i.e. 2001) age-related trends in body mass or body composition. Indeed, so-called master athletes typically train for 10 hours or more per week, and they often do so over decades. The latter are of particular interest, because the ageing athlete may be regarded as a model for ‘successful’ ageing ( Tanaka & Seals 2003 Rittweger et al. Moreover, records have been used to compare different groups of athletes, for example males and females ( Chatterjee & Laudato 1995), or athletes of different disciplines or different age. Using Wilkie's equation that relates mechanical power to time during exhausting exercise ( Wilkie 1980 di Prampero 1985), successful predictions of running and cycling performance have been made ( di Prampero et al. Important insights into the understanding of human performance in highly trained athletes can be, and have been, gained through the analysis of world records. The analysis of records has been intriguing to many researchers, mainly because the errors due to ‘experimental’ variation are impressively small for these extremes of human performance ( Hill 1925 di Prampero 1985 di Prampero et al. World records, in particular, can be regarded as results of one of the largest human experiments ever accomplished, taking into account the large underlying sample group, the well-defined criteria and the meticulous surveillance involved. Records in sports offer the unique opportunity to study physical performance of humans at optimum. (a) The significance of world record data However, it is unclear as to which are the governing mechanisms that cause the different systems in our body, responsible for sprinting and for endurance performance, to be affected by ageing in a remarkably uniform way. This study has reconciled formerly conflicting scientific results and improves our understanding of the ageing process. However, when assessing the metabolic power required to achieve the running world records, sprint and endurance events show a relatively uniform decline with age across the different events. In line with earlier studies, our analysis showed that running speed declines with age in a more pronounced way for endurance events than for sprinting events, confirming former studies. We argue here that our understanding of these data improves by considering how, biomechanically, metabolic power is related to athletic performance. However, past analyses of master athletic world record data have yielded opposite observations. It is often held that sprinting is more affected than endurance performance. ![]() Although the effects of ageing are often compounded by disuse, the study of master athletes provides an opportunity for investigating the effects of ageing per se. Human physical performance is notably reduced with ageing.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |