THE BIG QUESTION
Kit, Manchester
If every run, row and rep is feeling a little tougher than it used to, it can be tempting to pin the blame on the passage of time. Hollywood’s veteran action heroes, after all, are surely the exception, not the rule. But how much of an impact does age have on our PBs?
‘From their mid-twenties men typically lose about 10% of their VO² max [a marker of aerobic fitness] per decade,’ says exercise physiologist Tom Cowan. ‘After 50, this decline usually accelerates.’ Age-related muscle mass, or sarcopenia, also kicks in from around age 30, occurring at a rate of about 3% to 5% per decade.
That might sound a bit gloomy. But think about it: that’s just 1% of your fitness lost each year. To frame it another way, the average man in his forties can run 5K just two minutes slower than a man in his twenties. Are the changes you’re noticing more dramatic than that? Then there are likely to be other culprits.
It’s difficult to untangle cause and effect. One study of middle-aged men by the University of Sydney, Australia, concluded that declining test
