 How much does aging decrease your cycling performance? At what age does performance start to decline? And what can you do in training to counteract the effects of aging? Today, I'll be jumping into the science to answer these questions, as well as touching on changes in body composition as we age, such as decreased muscle mass and increased body fat, and what you can do about it. Welcome to another video. My name is Dylan, I'm a cycling coach at CTS and for weekly science-based training, racing and gear related videos, be sure to subscribe. And if you have a training question or a topic you'd like to see me cover in a future video, be sure to leave it down in the comment section below. I do my best to get to all the questions in the comments. According to my YouTube analytics, two thirds of you guys are over the age of 35, which means that we have a lot of masters, racers watching these videos. And this is a topic that's been requested many times, so I thought, why not? I may just be a 24 year old who has no idea what it's like to have balding gray hair, a slowing metabolism, or a v-brake mountain bike with 500 millimeter wide bars, but that doesn't mean that I can't do research into how aging affects performance and what you can do about it. This young whipper snapper barely has peach fuzz on his face and he thinks he can tell me how to train. Back in my day, we just got on our steel 10 speeds and pedaled the damn things. We didn't have no fancy power readers or electronic powered shifting. All right, let's go ahead and get into the science and we'll start with the dreaded decline. How much of a decline in performance can you expect to see with aging and when will this decline start? In this paper on master's athletes, they took a look at the US record of master's athletes for the 200 meter and 500 meter on the track, as well as the 40 kilometer time trial. What they found was that the percent decline was relatively small in young masters, for example, 35 to 49 years old, but the decline increased exponentially after 55 years and this decline may be even more dramatic in women. Going back to the 40 kilometer time trial records, we can see that the men had about a 10% decline in performance from age 35 to 60, while women had around a 15% decline from age 35 to 55. This probably explains why some pros can continue their career until around the age of 40, but much after that and the decline in fitness becomes too steep. So what exactly is the reason for this increasingly more rapid decline in fitness as we age? The most obvious and perhaps biggest factor is VO2 max. This review on endurance exercise performance in master's athletes came to a similar conclusion finding that peak endurance performance is maintained until around 35 years of age, followed by modest decreases until 50 to 60 years of age with progressively steeper declines thereafter. Progressive reduction in VO2 max appears to be the primary mechanism associated with decline in endurance performance. VO2 max declines approximately 10% per decade after the age of 25 to 30. Decreases in maximal stroke volume, heart rate and arteriovenous O2 difference all appear to contribute to the age related reduction in VO2 max, which may be due to reductions in intensity and volume of exercise that can be performed during the training sessions. And despite popular belief, endurance trained individuals may see a greater decline in VO2 max than sedentary individuals, simply due to their higher values as young adults. A declining VO2 max may be the biggest factor in reduced performance with aging, but there's also other factors such as exercise economy and lactate threshold. Fortunately, exercise economy does not seem to contribute significantly to the decreases in endurance exercise performance observed with aging. Things get a little bit more interesting when we start talking about lactate threshold though. This longitudinal analysis of lactate threshold in master's athletes looked at 74 runners over the course of six years. Interestingly, what they found was the lactate threshold as a percentage of VO2 max actually increased with age. However, this increase was not enough to counteract the drop in VO2 max with age. So in absolute terms, lactate threshold decreased. These results have been confirmed in the literature. Going back to the master's athlete review, absolute work rate at lactate threshold declines with advancing age in endurance athletes. However, lactate threshold does not appear to change with increasing age when expressed relative to the percentage of VO2 max. So essentially older athletes were able to utilize more of their VO2 max at threshold, but this wasn't enough to prevent the decline in performance. Up to this point, we've talked about the decrease in aerobic ability as we age, and that is the biggest factor. However, there are other age-related changes that happen that affect her performance, most notably an increase in body fat and a decrease in muscle mass. This study on testosterone body composition in aging looked at 372 males aged 20 to 85. What they found wasn't too surprising. Aging in males is accompanied by an important increase in fat mass and a decrease in lean body mass and decreasing testosterone levels are partially to blame. For anyone getting older and noticing a nice layer of fat where their abs used to be, this probably isn't news to you. You're damn right back when I was your age son, I could eat a whole roast beef dinner with all the fixings and I stayed skinnier than a rabbit in the cabbage patch during the drought of 69. Now I just look at a bite of cream pudding and my cholesterol goes up by 10 cholesterol units. To add insult to injury, regardless of age, changes in body composition, including an increase in body fat and a decrease in lean body mass can contribute to a lower VO2 max. VO2 max, of course, already being the biggest contributing factor to loss of performance. So there's the bad news and if the first half of this video depressed you, that wasn't my intention, but do stick around for the second half because now we're about to talk about solutions. What can you do as an older athlete to mitigate this decline in performance? I'll be addressing the three big limiters that impair our performance as we age, which are a decreased aerobic capacity, decreased muscle mass and an increased body fat. Let's start with a decreased aerobic capacity. A common theme in the literature on older endurance athletes is that training volume and intensity tends to decrease as we age. This may be purely out of necessity. As recovery slows down as we age, we may not be able to handle as high a training load as we used to. However, there is evidence to show that maintaining intensity will slow the decline in performance. This study on the effect of age and training on aerobic capacity looked at master's track athletes aged 50 to 82 over a 10-year period. What they found was that those who stayed competitive and therefore maintained intensity maintained their VO2 max while the group that was no longer competitive and reduced intensity saw a significant decline and this conclusion is further supported in the literature. The older we get, the harder it becomes to do high-intensity workouts on the bike. They become less enjoyable, recovery takes longer, and the chances of overtraining are higher. However, if you wanna maintain your current fitness level into your older years, they may be necessary. You'll have to be more mindful of recovery. Proper nutrition and rest will become increasingly more important. But the good news is you don't need a ton of high-intensity work in your week to see a large benefit. Two are on occasion three high-intensity or threshold-intensity workouts per week is optimal. If you want more information about how to incorporate intensity into your training, check the description below for a whole list of videos that'll help. Next up, let's address decreasing muscle mass. Back to the study on the effect of age and training on aerobic capacity, they made an interesting finding. The subjects in the study who performed regular weight training were the only ones to maintain their muscle mass. This maintained muscle mass isn't just for injury prevention or cosmetic benefits. There's actual measurable increases in cycling performance with lifting. The research on lifting's effects on cycling performance are clear. Lifting has a positive effect on exercise economy, anaerobic capacity, lactate threshold, reduced fatigue, and endurance performance due to numerous adaptations to the strength-trained muscles. And these benefits from lifting may be even more important for older athletes. For example, this study on the effect of strength training on master's athletes found that strength training had an even greater effect on the older athletes versus the younger ones. I recommend weight training to all my athletes, young or old, but here's where the advice for older individuals differs a little bit. Research shows that weight training has induced favorable muscular and functional adaptations in older individuals. However, a significant part of the favorable adaptations obtained after resistance exercise may be lost within six weeks of detraining. Anyone is gonna lose strength when they stop lifting, but because of aging, the loss of strength will be even quicker the older you get. This is why for master's athletes, I recommend that strength training be part of your year-round program and not just an off-season activity like some people with heavy race schedules may choose to do. Finally, we have increased body fat, and this one may be the hardest to combat. Gaining weight for some may just seem inevitable as we age, but it doesn't have to be. However, combating weight gain is gonna require lifestyle changes. The reason why diets don't work is because they're temporary. Your diet needs to be a day-to-day habit that you can maintain indefinitely. So what does a diet that promotes a healthy body weight look like? Well, it requires understanding the concept of calorie density or how many calories there are for a given weight of food. A diet low in calorie density has been shown to be the most effective weight maintenance strategy in the long term. A study on energy densities effects on weight change over six years took 186 subjects and measured the energy density of their diet. Six years later, they found that the energy density of the diet did not change for the individuals and that higher energy density was associated with weight gain and a higher BMI. The study concluded that low energy density diets moderate weight gain and that a lower energy density can be achieved by consuming more fruits and vegetables. Similar results were found in this study on the energy density of foods effects on energy intake. They provided subjects with meals for two days during three separate testing sessions. In these three sessions, subjects consumed either low, medium, or high energy density or calorie density meals. The results showed that significantly more calories were consumed for the higher energy density conditions even though the amount of food by weight was relatively similar. Calories consumed were around 1800 calories for the high energy density group and below 1400 calories for the low. This is the benefit of eating low calorie density. You don't have to reduce your portion size or starve yourself to lose weight. 400 calories is the kind of deficit that you want to produce consistent gradual weight loss. The study concluded that energy density influenced energy intake independent of macronutrient composition and that subjects reported no difference in feelings of hunger or fullness. And it isn't just two studies coming to this conclusion. A systematic review on dietary energy density and body weight looking at many studies concluded that their findings highlight the growing body of scientific evidence suggesting a relationship between energy density and body weight and that consuming diets low in energy density may be an effective strategy for maintaining body weight. So what does eating low calorie density actually look like in practice? Well, the foods lowest in calorie density just so happened to be the healthiest ones for you as well. We're talking about fruits and vegetables here. These should take up the majority of your plate. Stop thinking about vegetables as the side and start thinking about them as the main course. On top of this generally the more plant-based your diet is the lower it is in calorie density as well. Consuming more plants could potentially have the added benefit of protecting you from adverse health outcomes associated with endurance athletes. A study on plant-based diets for cardiovascular safety and performance in endurance sports stated that surprisingly endurance athletes may have more advanced atherosclerosis and more myocardial damage compared with sedentary individuals, particularly as they age. However, plant-based diets address key contributors to atherosclerosis, dyslipidemia, elevated blood pressure, elevated body weight, and diabetes. It's also worth noting that a key factor in oxygen delivery to the muscles is blood viscosity and individuals excluding meat entirely had significantly lower blood viscosity than those that ate meat occasionally. Reduced blood viscosity also improves tissue oxygenation, potentially improving athletic performance. Whatever change you make to your diet to try to maintain or even lose weight, remember that it needs to be sustainable. The reason why caloric restriction isn't sustainable is because it leaves you constantly hungry. The reason why the calorie density approach works is because it allows you to consume enough food to keep you satisfied. So what are the key take-homes here? First, a performance decline as we age is inevitable and this is mostly due to a decrease in VO2 max. However, other factors such as increased body fat and decreased muscle mass play a role as well. Maintaining intensity will allow you to hold on to as much of your fitness as you can, but remember that recovery from high-intensity work will take longer as you age. For master's athletes, it's important to have a regular lifting routine. Don't just save lifting for the off season. And finally, to keep the pounds off, adopt a low calorie density way of eating filled with fruits, vegetables, and other whole plant foods. This newfangled inner wave video wasn't as entertaining as my usual antiques road show on the television, but it was very informative. Pay your son, take a nickel for your hard work. You can spend it on spacers to raise your stem to a comfortable height or maybe a wider, more comfortable jail saddle. Thanks for watching and I hope you guys found this information helpful. If you did, be sure to give it a like, share it with a friend, and subscribe. And if you wanna be notified every time I put out a video, be sure to hit the notification bell as well. Training plans are now available and if you're interested in getting a CTS coach, be sure to use my code CTSDJ to save $40 by waiving the registration fee when you sign up. Links for both are down in the description.