Abstract
There is a well-conceived notion that rate of recovery from strenuous exercise gets
slower with age. However, it is unclear whether older adults who exercise habitually
demonstrate slower rates of recovery. We determined whether older adults who are physically
active demonstrate slower rates of recovery from unaccustomed strenuous exercise compared
with younger peers. Healthy young sedentary (n=10, 28±2 years), young endurance-trained
(n=15, 27±2 years), and older endurance-trained (n=14, 58±2 years) men and women were
studied. Participants performed 45 min of downhill running at 65% of their maximal
oxygen consumption. Visual analog pain scores of muscle groups increased at 24, 48,
and 72 h in all three groups (p<0.05), and changes in the muscular pain scale of the
legs was smaller in the older trained group than in the young trained group. Maximum
isometric strengths at 90° decreased in all groups at 24 h, but the recovery rates
were not different at 72 h among the groups. Plasma creatine kinase activity and myoglobin
concentration increased at 24 h following downhill running and returned to baseline
at 48 h in both the young and older trained groups. The present findings are not consistent
with the prevailing notion that older trained adults have a slower rate of recovery
from strenuous exercise.
Key words
muscle damage - aging - exercise
