Maximizing Performance and Preventing Injury in Masters Athletes

Abstract

Masters athletes exhibit persistently high levels of functional capacity helping them advance through a healthy aging process. When evaluating the trend of top performances among masters athletes, performance continues to improve within age categories [1, 2]. However, the capacity for performance in athletics does decrease as people age. The rate of decline has been evaluated by several studies. When examining the track and field performance of senior athletes, both male and female performance decreased at approximately 3.4% for each year after the age of 50 in a relatively linear fashion, until the age of 75, where performance begins to fall more precipitously, with a decline of greater than 7% in performance times annually [3]. Furthermore, the age of maximum performance increases with greater race distances, and the rate of slowing as athletes age decreases as competition distances increase [4]. This is consistent with known shifts that take place within skeletal muscle: the percentages of slow-twitch type I muscle fibers increase with increasing age [5–11]. Similar findings are noted in other sports as well [12]. Masters swimmers also demonstrate a modest, linear decrease in performance of 0.6–1% per year until age 70, when a more rapid decline is noted [13, 14]. In Ironman triathletes, age-related rates of decline in performance are 13% for men and 15% for women each decade until age 70; with greater declines noted in swimming and running than cycling [1].