Are you over 40 and worried that your cycling performance will decline faster than your hairline? There’s no need to.
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With some training, nutrition, and gear adjustments, you’ll find that age is no barrier to perfect pedaling.
This guide explains 7 things you can do to stay healthy and improve your cycling performance.
1. Increase strength
Joe Friel, a top cycling coach who is still going strong even at the age of 80, says: “Training time, intensity, and frequency are three elements of training that can be manipulated to create fitness.
“As we get older, we tend to increase duration at the expense of intensity. As weekly volume becomes the focus of our training, our workouts become longer and slower.
“However, older athletes need to do the opposite. They should base their training on workouts that push their heart rate above 80% of their maximum heart rate, about two to three times a week. The sessions will be shorter, but the average weekly intensity will be higher.”
The reason is to maintain a solid aerobic capacity. Many of us know that our maximum heart rate decreases as we age. Therefore, a parochial way to calculate your maximum heart rate is 220 minus your age.
When your heart rate decreases, your cardiac output, which is the amount of blood pumped by your heart every minute, decreases. When your lungs become less efficient, your VO2 max can go into freefall. But, as Friel says, research shows that increasing the intensity of your sessions slows the decline.
2. Change your nutrition
Another component of recovery and training is nutrition. Older adults may need more of some micronutrients, so small adjustments may be necessary as we age.
“Although metabolic and physiological differences occur as we age, nutrition related to exercise and sports remains similar for young and older adults,” said James Carter, senior director of the Gatorade Sports Science Institute. talk.
“Older adults may have increased demands for some micronutrients that are easily met through a variety of diets, and they may also have increased protein requirements to prevent muscle loss. Younger adults may have increased protein requirements at each meal. and 20-25g of protein after exercise, which should increase to 30-40g in older adults.
Protein-rich foods include eggs, almonds, chicken breast, milk, and yogurt.
Although there is no conclusive evidence yet, experienced triathlon coach Joe Lewis recommends taking glucosamine supplements.
“If I haven’t been drinking, I’m more squeamish than usual!” she says.
Lewis also emphasizes how nutrition should change during menopause, with good fats and calcium (from milk) being key. Good fats fight heart disease, which postmenopausal women may be at risk for due to decreased estrogen levels.
3. Increases testosterone
It is widely known that physical strength declines rapidly as we age, and if we are not aware of this, this can actually happen. As you know, muscles are made up of thousands of fibers, each innervated by a single nerve.
Over time, nerve loss occurs and associated muscle fibers die. Research shows that the vastus medialis muscle in your thigh contains approximately 800,000 fibers at age 20. By the age of 60, there will be 250,000 people.
That’s why we need to control our hormones. When Lance Armstrong confessed to doping, his exhaustive list included testosterone.
Now, we’re not condoning administering synthetic testosterone in the name of cycling performance – it’s illegal, and side effects can cause testicle atrophy – but the reason is that arm Mr. Strong other I took testosterone because it has a positive effect on cycling performance.
“Testosterone maintains and increases lean muscle mass, improves cognitive function, increases bone density to prevent conditions such as osteoporosis, and increases your ability to recover from training,” says Will Mangal, Ph.D. .
The problem is that testosterone levels decline after the age of 30. Cycling offers physical and mental benefits, but it also accentuates the problems.
Studies have shown that 90 minutes of submaximal exercise causes a slight decrease in testosterone levels, but 2 hours or more of moderate-to-vigorous intensity exercise causes a significant decrease in testosterone levels.
It has been suggested that increased cortisol levels, weight loss, and changes in luteinizing hormone, which helps produce testosterone, may be to blame.
“That’s where weight training comes in,” Mangal says. “Cycling is often a catabolic activity, whereas weight training is an anabolic activity, which increases testosterone levels.” Athletes in their 40s are cycling all the time and their performance has plateaued. I see it.
“People who do weight training, bodyweight training, or plyometrics experience increased power output, recovery, and stamina. This is all due to increased levels of testosterone, which increases the Benefits are maximized. For riders over 35, we recommend splitting the week into 80 percent riding and 20 percent weights.”
Mangal also said that engaging the major muscle groups is key to boosting testosterone levels, so he recommends squats that work your quads and glutes.
Since testosterone levels are highest in the morning, there is an argument that “morning” rides will show a greater increase than “afternoon” rides.
4. Bodyweight exercises to strengthen major muscle groups
To work the major muscle groups, you should perform three sets of each exercise listed below, ideally to exhaustion. If you can’t do that, try to do as many as you can within a minute before moving on to the next exercise.
squat thrust
Place your hands on the floor shoulder-width apart. Stretch your legs out behind you as if you were doing push-ups. In one motion, bring your legs into a tuck position and bend your knees toward your chest. repeat. You can also do alternate leg squat thrusts.
pull-up
For this you will need a bar to pull yourself up. Many parks now have these branches installed, but you can also improvise branches in any sturdy and convenient location.
Grasp the bar within reach above your head, palms facing forward, keeping your hands shoulder-width apart. Raise your chin up to the bar and lower it down. repeat. The exercise will be easier if your palms are facing towards you. It becomes more difficult if you spread your arms wide apart.
burpees
From a standing position, move to a squat position with your hands on the ground in front of you. Kick your legs back and get into a high plank position. Immediately jump your feet towards your hands and jump straight up. repeat.
press up
Lie face down on the floor with your feet closed and palms down on the floor beneath your shoulders. Push up using your arms, keeping your core engaged, straighten your back, and prop your elbows up. Lower your hips to the starting position.
5. Adjust the cleats
“Problems can arise from a cyclist’s sport of origin,” says experienced bike fitter John Dennis.
“You might have middle-aged people who come from golf or soccer. They come from sports that involve a lot of rotation, so they tend to be asymmetrical when they ride a bike.”
The muscles around your lower back are a little misaligned, causing them to overcompensate. An imbalance in the pelvis causes it to overextend when pedaling, leading to knee problems.
“There are different options for what you can do with your feet to gain more control over your knees,” says Dennis. “But the main options include cleat position. Typically, the cleat is set slightly back so that pressure is distributed across the metatarsal heads rather than under the big toe joint. Helpful for people with weak calf and ankle muscles, or unsteady feet.
In addition to adjusting the cleat position, you also have the option of installing a wedge under the cleat to eliminate imbalance.
“Placing an additional footbed in the shoe will support the foot in a neutral position. In-shoe wedges can have a different effect. Placing a wedge under the cleat will affect the entire shoe. Because under the arch is just a foot.”
6. Speed up your recovery
What you do in between workouts is equally important. “Once you start aging, recovery takes longer,” explains David James, an exercise physiologist and professor at the University of Gloucestershire.
“It has also been established that high-intensity riding, which older riders should do more often, can cause a decline in immune function for up to three days after the ride. During this period after exercise, upper respiratory tract infections It is also associated with a higher incidence of
So what can you do? Ideas to improve recovery include compression socks. Ideally, it’s a custom-made shoe that elicits the necessary pressure to stimulate more blood flow and promote the breakdown of toxins. After a high-intensity session, drink a drink that combines protein and carbohydrates to start muscle repair and boost immunity. But the biggest impact comes from sleep.
“Growth hormone production decreases as we age, so sleep is essential to maximize production,” Friel says. “The criteria I use to determine if an athlete is getting enough sleep is: If you have to use an alarm clock to wake up in the morning, you’re not getting enough sleep. Please go to bed early.”
Sleep expert Nick Littlehales advises people who are having trouble sleeping to keep the room temperature at 17-18 degrees Celsius, avoid using smartphones in bed and buy a cheaper mattress. , we recommend replacing them more frequently. “We also recommend the dawn light simulator to get through the day comfortably,” he added.
7. Train your brain
When you exercise, your brain produces its own fertilizer through a protein known as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).
Larissa True calls it the “miracle of the brain,” and it’s an area the New Mexico State University kinesiology professor studied for her Harvard paper.
“Brain-derived neurotrophic factor is secreted in the brain and is known to regenerate neurons throughout the nervous system. That potentially means you can cycle longer and faster without getting injured. ” says True.
“It’s also important in motor learning and long-term and short-term memory, both of which can be affected with age. What’s interesting is that its secretion levels are activity-dependent. The more BDNF is secreted, the more BDNF is secreted.”
A German study also showed that the effects of daily aerobic exercise on brain-derived neurotrophic factors were further improved by intervals between sprints, and researchers found that The group noted that they learned vocabulary 20 percent faster than the non-sprinter group.
BDNF is thought to bind to receptors within synapses and increase voltage, improving voltage strength.
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Follow these steps and you can continue cycling into your 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond.
