The Impact of Training on the Loss of Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Aging Masters Endurance Athletes

Abstract

Elite masters endurance athletes are considered models of optimal healthy aging due to the maintenance of high cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) until old age. Whereas a drop in VO2max in masters athletes has been broadly investigated, the modifying impact of training still remains a matter of debate. Longitudinal observations in masters endurance athletes demonstrated VO2max declines between −5% and −46% per decade that were closely related to changes in training volume. Here, using regression analyses, we show that 54% and 39% of the variance in observed VO2max decline in male and female athletes, respectively is explained by changes in training volume. An almost linear VO2max decrease was observed in studies on young and older athletes, as well as non-athletes, starting a few days after training cessation, with a decline of as much as −20% after 12 weeks. Besides a decline in stroke volume and cardiac output, training cessation was accompanied by considerable reductions in citrate synthase and succinate dehydrogenase activity (reduction in mitochondrial content and oxidative capacity). This reduction could largely be rescued within similar time periods of training (re)uptake. It is evident that training reduction or cessation leads to a considerably accelerated VO2max drop, as compared to the gradual aging-related VO2max decline, which can rapidly nullify many of the benefits of preceding long-term training efforts.