(Master Athlete talk)- What's in a name and some ideas

[Guest guest]

While setting up a forum specifically for the older athlete may seem at first

glance a great idea, I feel that there is more to be gained by staying within

this forum. I would not want to isolate a specific group. I feel that the

spectrum athletes is a continuum from early teens to centenarians and that while

competitive sports may break up the masters in 10 and 5 year increments the

changes over the years is gradual and differs from one athlete to the next

depending on any number of factors. Physiological age does not mirror

chronological age.

I think simply prefacing a topic with parenthesis such as (Master Athlete talk)

alerts those interested in the topic that it is worth their time to read the

post and others less interested to simply hit the delete button. Having said

that I feel that there is a definite difference consideration in the Master

athlete in their 60s vs Master athletes in their 40 something.

In thinking about this topic I came up with a list of ideas that might be worthy

of practical and philosophical discussion.

1. " Know thyself " . know your individual limitations and training within

yourself.

2. The most important aspect of any training program is recovery. This is the

time when gains are made. Inadequate recovery leads to poor subsequent

training.

3. Corollary to 2- Adequate rest and nutrition. There are lot myths concerning

nutrition that abound concerning training and they are even more critical for

the aging athlete.

4. Stress management- work stress, training stress, emotional stress etc all

play a role in our health and training.

5. Less is more- Train smart. Sometimes too much training stress leads to

decreased gains. (see 3 and 4).

6. Advance slowly- trying to do too much too soon is counterproductive.

7. Start with the basics. When trying to learn about physiology go the basic

texts before going to the published articles.

8. Critical thinking when reading and interpreting published articles. If you

don't have the basics you will not be able to think critically when reading

articles. Just because an article is written does not make it true.

9. There very few articles and basic data on the aging athlete so it is probably

best to ignore most articles looking at exercise and older persons unless you

are training older neophytes or caring for older individuals.

Just a few ideas.

Ralph Giarnella MD

Southington Ct USA