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โพสต์: 08 ก.พ. 2011, 09:51
Dear Dr. Mirkin: Why is my bicycle racing (age 69) getting slower each year?
Aging saps you of muscle strength by causing you to lose muscle fibers. All muscles are made up of thousands of individual muscle fibers. For example, the vastus medialis muscle of a 20-year-old contains about 800,000 fibers, while that of a 69-year-old contains only about 200,000.
The limiting factor in how fast you can run, ski, cycle, skate or swim is the time it takes to bring oxygen into your muscles. That is limited by how much oxygen-filled blood your heart can pump into your muscles. The faster your heart can beat, the more oxygen-filled blood it can pump to your muscles and the longer and faster you can exercise.
As you age, your heart cannot beat as fast as it did when you were younger. Your maximum heart rate slows dramatically. For people who are not highly fit, the fastest your heart can beat is estimated as 220 beats per minute minus your age. However, highly fit older people can have maximum heart rates that are much higher than those of unfit younger people.
Your maximum heart rate is determined by the strength of your skeletal muscles, not by the strength of your heart. When your leg muscles contract, they squeeze veins near them to push blood toward your heart. When you leg muscles relax, the veins fill with blood. So your leg muscles pump increased amounts of blood toward your heart. This increased blood fills the heart and causes your heart to be faster and with more force. This is called the Bainbridge reflex. The stronger your legs are, the more blood they can pump, which causes your heart to beat faster.
Intense training that strengthens leg muscles can increase maximum heart rate so you will still be able to compete against younger athletes. Although your training will make you faster than less-fit individuals, you are still losing muscle fibers and will not be able to move as fast as you did when you were younger
Aging saps you of muscle strength by causing you to lose muscle fibers. All muscles are made up of thousands of individual muscle fibers. For example, the vastus medialis muscle of a 20-year-old contains about 800,000 fibers, while that of a 69-year-old contains only about 200,000.
The limiting factor in how fast you can run, ski, cycle, skate or swim is the time it takes to bring oxygen into your muscles. That is limited by how much oxygen-filled blood your heart can pump into your muscles. The faster your heart can beat, the more oxygen-filled blood it can pump to your muscles and the longer and faster you can exercise.
As you age, your heart cannot beat as fast as it did when you were younger. Your maximum heart rate slows dramatically. For people who are not highly fit, the fastest your heart can beat is estimated as 220 beats per minute minus your age. However, highly fit older people can have maximum heart rates that are much higher than those of unfit younger people.
Your maximum heart rate is determined by the strength of your skeletal muscles, not by the strength of your heart. When your leg muscles contract, they squeeze veins near them to push blood toward your heart. When you leg muscles relax, the veins fill with blood. So your leg muscles pump increased amounts of blood toward your heart. This increased blood fills the heart and causes your heart to be faster and with more force. This is called the Bainbridge reflex. The stronger your legs are, the more blood they can pump, which causes your heart to beat faster.
Intense training that strengthens leg muscles can increase maximum heart rate so you will still be able to compete against younger athletes. Although your training will make you faster than less-fit individuals, you are still losing muscle fibers and will not be able to move as fast as you did when you were younger