Old joke…
“They say the mind is the second thing to go…”
I wonder too… I never saw my father exercise. I vaguely recall him going skiing and such when I was child. He didn’t own a bucycle, etc. He died in his 90’s. I assume his sporting, active times declined with work and parenthood. People today are not reticent about exercise, for some it is a fad - something more common over time. So comparison against historical data may not be meaningful.
Most people don’t exercise as much as the modest recommendations. But people who do absolutely are not reticent about exercise.
I think some of the message is getting through. It used to be I was probably the oldest guy in the weight room. These days I am not even in the top ten; plenty of people have recently heard about the benefits of strength training.
One way to get data for this would be to look at times for competitive events, such as Master’s swimming:
Chances are, the people who are doing Master’s swimming are people who are regularly active. Certainly people who are qualifying for championship events are near the top of the fitness level for that age group. So the difference in these times should be able to give us insight into the drop off of athletic ability as people get older. For example:
| Men | Men | Men | Men | Men | Men | Men | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55-59 | 60-64 | 65-69 | 70-74 | 75-79 | 80-84 | 85-89 | |
| 50 free | 27.6 | 29.54 | 31.04 | 33.16 | 36.9 | 41.53 | 70.30 |
| Perc change | 7 | 5 | 7 | 11 | 13 | 69 | |
| 100 free | 01:02.0 | 01:05.7 | 01:10.9 | 01:18.2 | 01:27.0 | 01:39.4 | 02:37.5 |
| Perc change | 6 | 8 | 10 | 11 | 14 | 59 |
One good thing about looking at swimming is that the chance of injuries are low. People who run, play tennis, etc. may have to reduce their exertion level sooner due to injuries from the activity. I would think the drop off in times in swimming is almost all due to drop off in athletic ability rather than from injuries.
Interesting idea. I see a complication, though. There’s a strong selection effect favoring stronger men in the later age categories. It’s pretty typical to be alive in one’s late fifties, but not so typical to be alive in one’s late eighties. I’m thinking if we only included scores of men’s performances at various ages for men that did eventually reach the latest age in the table, we’d tend to deplete the less strong men that would otherwise be worsening the scores in the earlier ages. The performance curve for an individual ought to tend to be flatter than the table here suggests.
I guess the major medical impediment for swimming would be arthritis. Does arthritis correlate with lack of exercise, or with over-exercise?
In general higher levels of exercise are associated with decreased arthritis risk but “over exercise” is definitionally too much exercise?
Of course some activities are greater damage than others. Rugby and running are not the same impact on the joints and connecting structures.
Running regularly even long distances decreases risk of knee arthritis though.