Injury prevention for older athletes

The good news: Research shows that training is effective through every decade of life not only for maintaining but actually improving cardiovascular fitness, lean muscle mass and bone density.

An 80-year-old masters swimmer has the physiological profile, or "biological age," of a sedentary 30-year-old!

Every year the winning marathon times for the higher age brackets get faster, telling us that the full potential for older athletes isn't yet realized. While some people are taking up sports later in life for fitness and health,

others, who have been athletes all along, want to be able to continue to participate or even compete regardless of their years.

The bad news: Sports injuries in Americans 65 years and older rose by 54 percent in the 1990s, while the overall population of older adults only increased only by 8 percent. The most serious injuries involved bicycling and skiing. Safety equipment which are now considered standard accessories, especially helmets, have not yet become a habit for older athletes who did not grow up using them.

However, less serious over-use problems make up the bulk of injuries in the older athletes. Most over-use injuries can be prevented since effective fitness training is more about intensity rather than volume.

Since high mileage and lack of recovery days are the main causes of injuries, cutting back on total miles while slightly increasing the intensity will help reduce injuries.

For example, instead of running six days a week for a total of 30 miles with 15 of those miles at a 10K pace, try cutting back to four days per week for a total of 20 miles with 15 of those miles at a higher speed. Recovery time has increased without sacrificing training intensity.

Cross training and strength training with a different activity on your non-sport days preserves your cardiovascular fitness, while allowing your muscles to recover from your main sport.

¥ Strength training is essential in older athletes to maintain skeletal muscle--lighter weights, 30 repetitions per exercise, two to three days per week is recommended.

¥ Do not increase the duration, intensity or frequency of your workouts more than 10 percent per week.

¥ Backing off slightly every third week also has been found to greatly reduce injuries.

¥ A gradual warm-up should mimic your sport, such as tennis swings or light jogging.

¥ Stretching can help prevent injuries, enhance performance and maintain joint range of motion, especially in older athletes whose tissues have a natural tendency to stiffen.

More good news: In more than 10 years of studies, medicine has not been able to establish a causative link between sports participation, including running, and arthritis--in fact, just the opposite is true.

Exercise is the key to keeping tendons, ligaments, bones and cartilage in a functionally younger state. If you have arthritis, you may temporarily feel more symptoms from exercise, but it should not cause additional damage.

Additionally, some studies show that exercise can reduce the pain of arthritis. So, keep moving and enjoy your health!

(Suzanne Motsinger, is a physical therapist in the Therapy Services department at Flagstaff Medical Center.

Is there a health topic you'd like to know more about? Please write to Mountain Medicine, c/o Flagstaff Medical Center, Public Affairs, 1200 North Beaver Street, Flagstaff, AZ 86001, or visit FMC's website at www.FlagstaffMedicalCenter.com. For more information, please see your physician.)

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