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Running
Nutrition Tips For Older Runners http://www.poweringmuscles.com
http://www.poweringmuscles
The percentage of runners over age 45 has increased by more than 30 percent in the past five years. This is due in part to the fact that the sport’s retention rate is growing: the number of people who have been running for 10 years or more has also increased substantially in recent years. Nutrition is critical to running well over the long haul.
Like youth runners and women runners, older runners do not have nutritional needs that are substantially different from those of runners in general. What is different about older runners, however, is that they can’t get away with not eating properly they way a younger person might. In other words, the nutrition guidelines that are important for younger runners are even more important for older runners.
This is especially true for recovery nutrition. Older runners are more susceptible to muscle damage caused by eccentric muscle contractions (muscle contractions wherein the muscle lengthens as it contracts) and are not able to repair this damage as quickly between workouts. As I mentioned in earlier chapters, you can reduce muscle damage during running by drinking a sports drink containing carbohydrate and amino acids or protein. You can also greatly accelerate muscle tissue repair by consuming these same nutrients within 45 minutes of completing a run. But whereas a 20-year-old runner might be able to stray from these guidelines somewhat without noticeable consequences, a 50-year-old runner will almost certainly compromised his or her recovery severely.
Nutrition habits play an important role in maintaining muscle mass and strength. The older a runner gets the less he can take his nutrition habits for granted in this regard. After age 35 we tend to gradually lose muscle mass, mainly because we produce smaller amounts of anabolic hormones such as growth hormone. Adequate protein intake is essential for muscle maintenance. Research has also shown that athletes who practice correct recovery nutrition habits are better able to maintain muscle mass.
Proper nutrition alone is not enough. Unless you combine adequate protein intake with exercise, you will not succeed in slowing aging-related muscle atrophy. Running is exercise, of course, and running has been shown to delay and slow muscle loss in older runners. But to really do the job properly you must supplement your running with strength training. Again, younger runners can likely avoid strength training and not lose muscle mass. (For injury prevention, strength training will benefit you no matter what your age.) But once you pass age 35, strength training becomes truly indispensable for maintaining muscle mass– along with adequate protein intake and correct post-workout nutrition habits.
Our daily energy needs also tend to decrease gradually as we age. This is primarily an effect of a simultaneous decrease in the resting metabolic rate (RMR), which in turn is partly due to muscle loss. One reason most adults gain weight steadily throughout adulthood is that they continue to eat the same amount despite the fact that their RMR is going down. This phenomenon does not occur in runners and other endurance athletes, however. In a study at the University of Colorado, female runners and swimmers aged 50-72 had the same RMR as women aged 21-35, whereas the RMR of sedentary women aged 50-72 was 10 percent lower on average. So the bottom line is that if you stay in shape throughout your life, the amount you eat should not have to change. |
