If you could only give one piece of medical advice to a masters athlete what would that be?

Question

Dr. Aaron Baggish, MD · Answer

If I could give only one piece of medical advice to a masters athlete, what would that be? Well, that's a tricky question because I thoroughly enjoy working with masters athletes. And I love giving them just as much advice as they're willing to take. Thinking through all of the different tidbits that I typically try to provide from an advice perspective, if I had to choose one, it would be to think about the right balance of exercise volume and exercise intensity. As we age, our ability to perform high-intensity workouts over a short period of time tends to decrease. While young, highly-competitive athletes can oftentimes get away with three or four high-intensity sessions a week, as we age it becomes much more important that we prioritize volume over intensity. So for masters athletes looking to stay fit and competitive, I would advise them to reduce their high-intensity sessions to one or two at the most per week, and to really prioritize volume on the other days such that it's possible to train six if not seven days a week. But the vast majority of that training should focus on volume rather than high intensity. Not only will this reduce medical complications of training, but it will also actually translate into better performance in specific type of endurance sport. So really, it's a win-win situation.

Dr. Jelena Kunovac, MD · Answer

As a physician in Masters athlete I have one message for all Masters athlete. Do not ignore your heart health in a large study conducted in Europe that followed close to 800 Masters athletes. It was found that 11% of those athletes actually suffered from cardiovascular disease what we should do on an annual basis. Evaluate all cardiovascular disease risk including lipid profile assure that we reveal regularly on an annual basis. The family history Coronary artery disease and perform resting EKG. Now for those athletes who have a family history of premature coronary artery disease, which basically means a family member who was diagnosed with coronary artery disease and much earlier age than what we would expect or the athlete has abnormal EKG. It would be very important on an annual basis to perform exercise stress test.

Dr. Brian Cunningham · Answer

If you could only give one piece of medical advice to master athletes, what would that be? For males, I think a combination of strengthening and mobility work would be really important. And for females, I would definitely say strength training as we age. Generally, as we age, we'll lose muscle mass. So we'll tend to try to work harder, but you really need to work smarter. So if you strength train, you can avoid that decline in our performance.

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"If you could only give one piece of medical advice to a masters athlete what would that be?"