Hello, my name is Naomi Albertson.
I'm a medical physician in Sports Medicine and Family Medicine and today I'm going to
be talking to you about exercise recovery for the aging athlete.
Information provided in this presentation is intended for your general knowledge only
and does not constitute medical advice.
Disclaimer: I am a medical physician at the Reno Orthopaedic Clinic and the owner and
developer of Dr. Ni's OC2.
OC2 is a combination of vitamin D3, Calcium Citrate, Magnesium, and Creatine Monohydrate
for total frame support.* So let's start our discussion today about exercise recovery for
the aging athlete with an understanding of what is recovery.
Athletic recovery is a normal cellular process that allows injured muscle cells to repair
and recover.
Exercise causes muscle injury.
Muscle can adapt to regular exercise but still some muscle damage does occur.
Muscle recovery however, is critical to performance.
So how long does muscle recovery take?
Recovery varies with damage caused to muscle cells, free radical production, and aging.
When we exercise we cause damage to muscle cells.
If little muscular injury has occurred recovery is rapid.
Free radical production does cause some damage, but is a normal process of cell turnover.
Aging causes joint degeneration and loss of connective tissue elasticity and therefore
decreases normal mechanics and increases damage to muscles with lower levels of activity.
So how can you shorten or improve your recovery time?
Well, the first thing is proper training so that you're not overusing your muscles and
you're not excessively damaging cells.
Secondly, you want to make sure you're taking in adequate carbohydrates, lean protein, and
all essential vitamins and minerals to allow your muscles to work effectively.
Thirdly, of course you need adequate sleep and rest.
And finally, we need to hydrate adequately.
Let's start by addressing minimizing damage to cells through training.
One thing we can do as we age is to train to improve our flexibility.
As I mentioned above, aging causes joint degeneration and loss of connective tissue elasticity or
flexibility.
Additionally, we lose muscle strength.
When those three things occur together, we lose efficiency and increase damage to muscle
cells.
So in addition to maintaining strength as we age it's critical that we improve our flexibility
as we age.
Another way that we can minimize damage caused to cells is to make sure that our nutrition
is adequate for our activity.
In general, athletes who are taking fewer than 2000 calories daily is inadequate and
allows for increased muscle breakdown.
Additionally, poor nutrition can cause hindered performance and delayed recovery, increased
fatigue, and the risk of injury and illness.
So you may be wondering how should I eat during my activity?
And in general I would say that runners and cyclists should try to replenish glycogen
stores by eating specifically carbohydrates.
Here is a chart looking at weight in both pounds and in kilograms and replenishment
carbohydrates listed in grams.
On the next slide we'll go through a couple of different ways that you could get all of
those grams as carbohydrate sources.
In this slide you'll see a few different options for carbohydrate sources.
And you may or may not know that these are all rich in carbohydrates, but I would encourage
you to start reading labels and looking at the carbohydrate specifically in grams per
serving of whatever the foods are that you like.
The first drawing here is of a banana which is quite rich in carbohydrates, also high
in fiber and can cause some difficulty with digestion.
The second is mashed potatoes, you can see the chocolate milk which has gained some popularity,
some yogurt which is actually the lowest on this chart as a carbohydrate source but can
be high in protein and for that reason I've included it here as it can be a good recovery
nutritional aid.
And then the last picture there is of cereal which again packs a pretty big punch at 20
grams of carbohydrate per one cup of cereal.
Now on this next slide we're talking about how to eat for recovery, specifically to aid
muscles in recovery and decrease the time of recovery.
And you can see this is quite a busy slide.
That's mostly because there's a lot of variability and I'm going to let you read through this
primarily on your own, but you can see at the top of this slide on the left side that
the general public should be consuming about 0.8 grams protein per kilogram of body weight.
When you look at an endurance athlete we actually almost double that to 1.4 grams
per kilogram of body weight following activity.
And then when we look at resistance and strength training athletes we're looking at again doubling
the general public protein intake to about 1.7 grams per kilogram of body
weight.
So again here listed in the chart you can see weight in pounds, weight in kilograms,
and then daily protein which is, again, for the general public.
I also want to point out that it is not recommended to exceed high levels of protein, specifically
2.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight or about 1.1 gram of protein per pound
of body weight.
The reason is that with high intake of protein we can actually compromise our kidney function.
Now we've also talked about getting adequate nourishment with vitamins and minerals, and
there are many athletes who recommend taking antioxidants to achieve just that.
The current recommendations based on research do not support that practice.
There's little evidence to support the use of antioxidants as there is some evidence
that interfering with free radical signals may actually impair muscle performance.
So coming back to our overarching issue of improving recovery here we did discuss the
importance of sleep, and I really can't stress enough how important sleep is.
Current recommendations based on research to maximize both performance and improve recovery
are 10-12 hours daily for adults older than forty years of age.
Finally, discussing hydration is a very broad topic but I do want to mention it here in
that there are current recommendations for short activities that recommend drinking to
thirst.
These are also the same recommendations for long distance or extreme endurance activities.
It is, however, important to know that by losing 2% of your body weight due to any specific
activity or training event that that will significantly drop performance and may lead
to increased rates of injury.
So what about electrolytes?
Well, electrolytes are a complex and very controversial topic.
Consumption of electrolytes in sports drinks or on their own may be beneficial to improve
hydration, however all athletes should consult with their physician to discuss the pros and
cons prior to beginning use of any electrolyte supplement.
Electrolytes also vary significantly on how to take them, and whether they should be taken
for short and intense activity or long and less intense activity.
Your body actually does a very good job of maintaining electrolytes and the addition
of proper amounts of carbohydrates and/or electrolytes to a fluid replacement solution
is recommended for exercise events of duration greater than one hour.
But it is still unclear whether the electrolytes are necessary or whether this is truly a carbohydrate
issue only.
So in conclusion, in order to improve recovery we need to train smart, increase our flexibility,
and train for our specific activity.
We need to eat adequate nutrition including a good diet, adequate calories and multivitamins.
But there is no added benefit to antioxidants.
We do need to rest and we need to hydrate.
Thank you for your attention.
Dr. Ni's OC2 is a supplement that may aid active adults in maintaining activity and
improving recovery.
Please read more at www.boneandmuscle.com.
* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.