SERIOUS TRAINING 10
Aerobic Capacity and Age
Last week I shared a picture of a Spanish runner, Juan Lopez Garcia, at age 81. I mentioned that he is running quite fast for his age—3:39:10 for the marathon. I failed to mention his aerobic capacity (VO2 max). He was recently tested in a lab at a remarkable 52 ml/kg/min (milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of bodyweight per minute). That’s basically a way of saying how much oxygen he can get to the muscles to produce energy in a minute while taking into consideration how much weight must be moved.
And your sport also plays a role in determining VO2 max. The more muscles you use to propel the body in your sport, the higher your aerobic capacity. For example, a Nordic skier using both arms and legs to drive forward will have a higher aerobic capacity than if the same athlete did a bike test as cycling primarily uses the legs to power the bike. In fact, up until recently, the highest aerobic capacity ever reported was for a Nordic skier (the recently reported new record holder’s running test results raises questions).
What is a common aerobic capacity for an 81-year-old man? The normal range is 18 to 25. Exceptional is greater than 40. Lopez Garcia is in a category of his own. It’s especially amazing in that he didn’t start running until he was 66. Why is aerobic capacity so important? It comes down to how much oxygen you can deliver to the muscles. Without oxygen delivered to the muscle there is no fuel. VO2 max is essentially your engine size. As an endurance athlete, it sets the ceiling for your performance. The higher it is, the more oxygen the muscles get, and the faster you can potentially move.
Notice the “potentially.” There are other physiological factors that determine speed. But VO2 max is typically the most critical.
When aerobic capacity declines, so does performance. A vast body of research tells us that people generally lose about 5% to 15% of their aerobic capacity per decade after their mid-30s. You may not have noticed the drop in your 30s because it was gradual—and by then, you were likely training and racing more effectively. Experienced-based wisdom can offset small physiological changes. But as your VO2 max continues to trend downward—which is happening as your age goes up—it becomes increasingly difficult to compensate. Something must change if you want to remain competitive.
Dedicated athletes tend to be at the low end of that range, losing around 0.5% per year. Sedentary individuals may lose 1.5% per year or more. Inconsistent training usually places you somewhere in between, depending on just how inconsistent.
Beyond being consistent, how can you train to stay at the low end of that decline? Can you even reverse it? Can you raise it as you get older? That’s where we’re headed this week.
