What decades of training do to an ageing body

I realised something this week after David Weir finished third in the wheelchair race at the Chicago Marathon. He did it in 1:30:11, aged 47, and it made me wonder what decades of regular training actually do to a body as it gets older. It’s easy to assume the answer is wear and tear.

A team from King’s College London and the University of Birmingham studied 125 amateur cyclists aged 55 to 79, and compared them with healthy young adults and with people their own age who don’t exercise. The older cyclists hadn’t lost muscle mass or strength, and their body fat and cholesterol hadn’t crept up either.

And then there’s the immune system. Your thymus gland makes the T cells your immune system relies on, and it normally shrinks with age; but the cyclists were making as many T cells as the young adults.

I now coach a 75-year-old man and a 73-year-old man, and one of my CommFit regulars is a 73-year-old woman who trains twice a week alongside people in their twenties and thirties. They’re the most inspiring people I work with, because they show what’s possible when you get out of your comfort zone and stick with it.

None of them are athletes, and neither were the cyclists. They were amateurs who’d been riding for most of their adult lives, so it seems the years count for more than the intensity of any one of them.

So if you’re choosing between the plan that gets you through the next eight weeks and the one you could still be doing at 70, I’d pick the second. What’s the training you can see yourself still doing at 70?

A quote worth sitting with

“Their bodies have been allowed to age optimally, free from the problems usually caused by inactivity.”

— Professor Stephen Harridge, King’s College London, who co-led the cyclist study.

The Saturday Standard

Turf test

Go out on the row at a pace you can hold and empty the tank over the last 500m. Use the 5 minutes’ rest to start your deadlift warm-up, because 12 minutes goes quicker than you think. Work up in jumps of 10 to 20kg and stop at the last single that still moves cleanly; this is a heavy single on tired legs, not a true max.

Back on the competition floor

Last weekend I took part in Turf Games in Manchester, as part of a team of four. It was a chance to put a year’s worth of CrossFit training to the test across four events, including an erg race and a max lift for weight.

It was loads of fun and I’m really pleased to be back out on the competition floor. Next weekend it’s a mixed pairs competition in Preston, so I’ll let you know how that one goes.

And if you’d like help building a plan you’ll still be doing at 70, I coach online and one to one in Whickham, and your first CommFit class is free. Just reply to this email and we’ll work out where to start.