To Start Endurance Training After 40

Abstract

It is unknown whether endurance training started earlier or later in life can reverse the deleterious effects of sedentary behaviour on the cardiovascular system. It could be that long-term endurance training have beneficial effects when started in the youth. But the benefits could be blunted in case of a later onset of training, when aging effects have already altered cardiovascular functions. PURPOSE: To evaluate if the age at which endurance training has been started modify cardiac and vascular parameters in healthy senior men. METHODS: We compared 40 asymptomatic men (55-70 years old) without any known cardiovascular risk factor: 10 have never practiced more than 2 hours of training per week during their lives (NT, 59±3 years old), and 30 trained in endurance (cycling or running) >5 hours a week. Among these athletes, 16 started the training before 30 (T30, 62±3 years old, 40.8±5.0 years of training) and 14 started the training after 40 (T40, 63±4 years old, 18.2±6.1 years of training). Maximal exercise test, echocardiography at rest and during submaximal exercise, and heart rate (HR) variability spectral analysis during 5 min supine were performed. RESULTS: First, three parameters of cardiovascular health differed between NT and both trained groups, without any difference between T30 and T40: resting HR (69.7±9.3, 56.8±10.0, and 58.1±4.9 bpm, respectively, p<0.05), maximal oxygen uptake (33.0± 4.3, 47.3±7.1, and 44.6±4.3 ml/min/kg, respectively, p<0.001), and resting autonomic balance (LF/HF; 4.1±3.1, 2.1± 1.4, and 2.0±0.7, respectively, p<0.05). Second, echocardiographic parameters of myocardial systolic and diastolic functions did not differ between the three groups. Third, during submaximal exercise (HR=110 bpm), indices of ventriculo-arterial coupling (p<0.01) and vascular functions (p<0.05) differed only between NT and T30: effective arterial elastance (2.4±0.6 vs. 1.7±0.5 mmHg/ml), left ventricular end-systolic elastance (6.8±1.9 vs. 4.4±1.5 mmHg/ml), valvulo-arterial impedance (1.4±0.3 vs. 1.1±0.4 mmHg/ml/m2), total arterial compliance (0.8±0.3 vs. 1.2±0.4 ml/mmHg), and total peripheral resistance (0.9±0.2 vs. 0.7±0.2 mmHg s/ml). CONCLUSIONS: According to our results, it seems that forty years old is not too late to start endurance training in order to improve cardiac health later in life. However, vascular functions seem to be more improved when endurance training is started earlier in life.