Peak Performance
Improvements in training and nutrition over the past couple of decades have certainly pushed the envelope for sports and performance, particularly for the aging athlete. Brett Favre, Lance Armstrong, and Randy Couture have all reached later stage professional career success. Most recently, Bernard Hopkins became the oldest fighter to win a major world championship, taking the WBC light heavyweight title from a much younger Jean Pascal at the age of 46. Nowadays, athletes are not only competing into their thirties, but are winning, and some like Hopkins actually are successful well into their 40’s. Perhaps most surprising is that these athletes are competing in their 40s in events as rigorous as professional football, hockey, rugby and even World’s Strongest Man competitions. The latest question for exercise scientists now is how far can humans go and when do they peak? Researchers from the Institut de Recherche bioMédicale et d'Epidemiologie du Sport at INSEP, Paris, France recently published an answer. Geoffroy Berthelot and Stephane Len published their findings in Age (2011), the official journal of the American Aging Association.
Researchers investigated both physiological and intellectual measures of performance in elite athletes and chess grandmasters. According to investigators the findings suggest that changes in individual performance are linked to physiological laws structuring the living world. “Essentially all physical and intellectual abilities follow the same pattern, starting at the moment of conception: The performance of each individual is limited at birth, then increases to a peak before declining until death. Physiological parameters that characterize human capabilities (mobility, reproduction or the capacity to perform tasks) evolve throughout the life cycle.” Based on this model, Berthelot and Len synthesized the careers of more than 2,000 athletes (from a panel of 25 Olympic disciplines) as well as grandmasters of chess. In the study the researchers demonstrate a simple relation between changes in performance and the age of individuals. In line with a previous model published by Moore, the peak and decline curve is fairly predictable but different between physical and intellectual measures.
Based on the findings, the human “peak” is reached at the age of 26.1 years for the disciplines studied: athletics (26.0 years), swimming (21.0 years) and chess (31.4 years). According to authors, for each data set, the evolution curve is representative of a range of 91.7% of the variance at the individual level and 98.5% of the variance in terms of sport events. Investigators state that “these cycles are observable in other physiological parameters as well, such as the development of lung function and measurable cognitive skills, but also at the level of cells, organisms and populations, reflecting the fractal properties of such a law.” Authors suggest that the modeling of changes in performance with age can be extended to all individuals and lead to an estimate of life expectancy.
This study supports the notion that technical change, energy consumption, and development strongly influence the performance of individuals. With improvements in methods and athletic development the differences observed over the last century are significant and are demonstrative of the training influence on today's champions. Career lengths and performance measures have increased amongst the best competitors in a period too short to be a human adaptation. While one’s peak may be genetically defined, nurturing of the athlete may provide for staying power and optimization of peaking to attain true potentials. Increased focus on technique, physical readiness, advances in training and nutrition, and more knowledge of well being all add to the potential career of an athlete.
The aging competitor may stave off retirement, at least for a couple of years, with a balance of training and nutritional supported recovery. Likewise, avoiding burnout and overuse are important elements to consider. Although athletes must peak at the pinnacle of their career, a recreational athlete or fitness enthusiast should be more focused on sustainability. Considering performance decline occurs after the age of 26, an optimal strategy would be to attempt to reach one’s relative genetic potential at that time and strive to maintain it, accepting a gradual decline, so that even in old age function is still high, as is quality of life (QOL). From a health perspective, in the early decades when muscles are stronger emphasis should be placed on peaking the cardiovascular system, whereas a training shift should move to more strength and power activities to prevent the onset of age related decline. Although a mixture of strength, power, flexibility, and cardiorespiratory fitness should be encouraged throughout life, greater emphasis on aerobic pathways to promote lifespan and reduce risk for disease should reflect the first half while morphing into greater resistance based emphasis in the second half of life. Many people are surprised by this but it makes sense. How many kids are strong enough to play sports? Almost all; now how many 60-80 year olds are strong enough to play sports? Almost none.
Most Americans however, function contrary to this plan and actually peak around age 20, setting off an early decline. Sedentary lifestyles, western cultural behaviors and diets now worsen rather than heighten physical capacity. Failing to engage in physical and cognitive training will lead to premature decline and reduced quality of life. To experience health and fitness one does not have to live like a champion, but at the very least requires a health/performance fitness balance, including nutrition and a routine regimen of activity over the entire life span.
