Benefits of Endurance Training

By endurance training, we are talking about aerobic exercise that develops the body’s ability to respire and process oxygen. We measure aerobic fitness by VO2 max which is the maximum amount of oxygen an individual can utilize. The VO2 technical definition is the maximum amount of oxygen in milliliters, one can use in one minute per kilogram of body weight.

The most obvious benefit of endurance training is that we improve our VO2 max, but what does that mean in practical terms? It means we can climb multiple flights of stairs without being exhausted or we can run to an airport gate to make a flight. 

Endurance training develops the heart muscle, making it more elastic and stronger so that it pumps more blood with each beat. By pumping more blood with each beat, the heart rate drops. The average heart rate is in the 70s for more people. Athletes, especially those in endurance sports, have a rate in the 50’s. Along with lower heart rates, blood pressure usually declines with aerobic training. 

Endurance training also develops the mitochondria in both the heart muscle as well as skeletal muscle. Mitochondria are rod-like entities in the cell that convert oxygen and food into energy. This is the energy to sustain the cell as well as provide muscular energy. They also appear to play a major role in the aging process. Mitochondrial degradation has been hypothesized as a major factor in aging. 

Should you incorporate aerobic exercise in your fitness program?

We can approach this question logically. We know that if we don't exercise our aerobic fitness will continue to decline as we age. To avoid this decline, some level of exercise should be included in our fitness regimens. This determination begins with a physical audit of your cardiovascular system. If there is no or little evidence of heart disease or high blood pressure than there should be no hesitancy to include aerobic work in your program. Even if there are some heart or lung problems, some modified exercise is still called for—perhaps not running but rather a walking or jogging regimen.
Aerobic training comes with some caveats. We know middle-age aerobic training will help maintain the elasticity of the heart. It is this elasticity that gives the heart much of its pumping ability. At some point in the aging process heart muscles harden and once this occurs it is difficult if not impossible to regain that elasticity. So the question is whether aerobic exercise should be included in a program for a new exerciser over 65?
Here is what I know.
The Covid crisis caused me to cut back on my aerobic exercise for over a year. When I resumed my interval training, I was shocked in the amount of deterioration in my aerobic fitness. I could not even complete a light version of my previous program. Halfway through the first workout, I had to stop. Because I am approaching my eighth decade, I was concerned. The good news is that I scaled back my program and in just few months I regained and surpassed my previous fitness level. Training works!
Supplying oxygen to all of the body’s cells plays a crucial role in maintaining cellular health. When the body loses its ability to deliver and process oxygen to the cells, the cells die; when cells die, organs die and when organs die, we die. The only way to retain this oxygen processing ability is through aerobic exercise. Is aerobic exercise important? Is living important?

My summer aerobic training

 Sunday: Bicycle, long slow distance cycling with a training measure of time adding one minute each workout.

Tuesday: Fartlik run. Fartlik is an alternating tempo run such as sprinting for 30 second or so then slowing down to regain my wind. The training measure is distance covered in the run, perhaps adding 200 yards each session.

Thursday: Long slow distance running, adding about 30 seconds each run. My benchmark for this may only be 8 or 9 minutes initially, but by the end of the season I will be close to an hour.

On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I do some sprint work with my circuit training. My training measures are for the strength exercises and sprint intensity is what I feel like doing.

Saturday: No aerobic workout.

Seasonal Training

A challenge for any exercise training program is to maintain a progressive element in the training. Seasonal training allows you to maintain a progressive element to your workouts and also adds diversity to your exercise.

When we were young, the seasons had meaning. For me, spring was the beginning of baseball season. I can remember the joy of the first days in March when we pulled out our baseball gloves, bats and balls. All through the summer school vacation most days were spent on the baseball diamond. With fall and return to school, we put away our baseball gear, and began playing basketball every day after school. I remember walking home with friends in early November dribbling the ball as we walked and talked. This was childhood as we created it—not the organized adult developed activities.

Seasonal training brings back the joy of seasons. Spring no longer brings baseball to my life, but it is the beginning of my bicycle training. Training might be a bit of an exaggeration. I have devised a seasonal cycling game. I ride only once or twice a week. I call this “little boy” riding. I don’t worry about speed and my training measure is distance. Each ride is two or three minutes longer than the previous ride. I ride over the same course each year, and the game is to see how long I can ride by the end of my cycling season. The first ride of the season is usually about one hour, but the end of the season I am approaching four hours. I put away my bicycle sometime in October, and move on to my winter swimming program when I start my lap swim regimen, starting with six or eight laps. By the time by the time spring arrives, I might be swimming up to 60 laps. 

Each season has its own training goals. I begin with a set of exercise benchmarks. Usually these benchmarks are about 50% of the final workouts from the previous season. The goal is to have an improvement over the previous season. For example, in my circuit training course, I have a pull-up station where I was able to do 10 pull-ups at the end of summer training. In the spring, I set a new benchmark, which is some performance under ten. For instance it may be 5 pull-ups. Thus, my seasonal training goal is to exceed the 10 pull-ups from the previous season. Even at almost 80, I usually succeed surpassing the previous season’s performance, but if I don’t, I always have next season.

What is carnitine?

Like most nutritional supplements, carnitine should not be used by everyone. However, anyone who suffers from insufficient carnitine production, supplementation could be beneficial to their health. 
Carnitine is a naturally produced substance that is produced primarily in the liver and kidneys. It is biosynthesized from the amino acids lysine and methionine. The body also assimilates carnitine from food with red meat the most prominent source.
Carnitine deficiency is seen most in vegetarians. So for people who don't eat red meat (beef), carnitine supplementation may be recommended.

Different Strengths, Different Exercises

Popular fitness books usually extol one particular form of exercise while ignoring or even denigrating other forms. In truth, to be totally fit requires an exercise program that addresses all components of fitness. For all ages, the exercising principle is the same: if you don't work your body, your body will become weaker. There are those that follow a different strategy and believe by resting they somehow conserve their strength. All that resting does is to place you quicker in a rest home.

 Fitness is primarily about strength and strength comes in three forms: power, endurance, and stamina and the exercises that develop these different strengths are quite different. So if you are going to achieve total fitness, you need to develop a program that works for each form.

 Power strength is the capacity and ability to exert force. This is the strength to open a stuck window on a hot afternoon or to lug a 50 lb bag of top soil. The type of exercise that best develops power is high intensity strength training or HIIT. The goal of power exercise is to develop muscle mass.

 Endurance strength is the capacity and ability to work for long duration. This is the strength to climb ten floors of stairs without being winded. The type of exercise that best develops endurance is aerobic exercise which increases the exerciser’s ability to access and process oxygen.

 Between power and strength is stamina which is the ability to work fairly intensely for a fairly long time. This is the strength to do vigorous yard work for an afternoon without becoming exhausted. The types of exercises that best develops stamina are bodyweight exercises or what was used to be called calisthenics.

 Other than strength exercises, core, balance and flexibility should also be included in a total fitness program for seniors.

 Which exercises are most important for seniors? Unfortunately, the best exercises are the ones that seniors do least: aerobic and power. This blog is going to explore all of the exercise forms and why and how they should be performed.