2008-07-23
Speed and Age
Not only is Paul Smith a fast swimmer, he has an uncanny ability to find good articles regarding different aspects of swimming. He recently came across a very interesting read on age, speed, endurance etc. etc.:
Speed and age - The bad news is that speed declines with age; the good news is that you can arrest, even reverse, this degenerative process.
Speed and age - The bad news is that speed declines with age; the good news is that you can arrest, even reverse, this degenerative process.
"Fast-twitch muscle fiber, that most precious of commodities for speed and power, displays a much more marked decline than slow-twitch fibre as we age. Speedsters, it appears, are not as blessed as endurance athletes in the ageing-and-performance stakes. The latter can expect to maintain their slow twitch fibres and even increase them – by as much as 20% with the right training – as they ripen. They can also hold on to nearly all their aerobic capacity until late into their fifth decade at least. If only it were so for their sprinting counterparts, whose fast-twitch fibre can decline by as much as 30% between the ages of 20 and 80. "Good information for everybody, check out the whole thing.
