Staying a Step Ahead of Aging

While you will slow down as you age, you
may be able to stave off more of the deterioration than you thought. Researchers say that you should be
able to maintain your muscles as you age, including the muscle enzymes
needed for good athletic performance, and you should be able to
maintain your ability to exercise for long periods near your so-called
lactic threshold, meaning you are near maximum effort.

But you have to know how to train, doing the right sort of exercise, and you must keep it up. Train hard and train often. Do things like regular interval training,
repeatedly going all out, easing up, then going all out again. These
workouts train your body to increase its oxygen consumption by allowing
you to maintain an intense effort.

When you have to choose between hard and often, choose hard.

The reason people become slower, though, is that oxygen consumption declines with age.

In large part that is because, as has long been known, the maximum heart rate
steadily falls by about seven to eight beats per minute per decade. It
happens with or without training, in sedentary and in active people. As a result, the heart
cannot pump as much blood at maximum effort.

From The New York Times