Recovery from Strenuous Downhill Running in Young and Older Physically Active Adults

Abstract

There is a well-conceived notion that rate of recovery from strenuous exercise gets slower with age. However, it is unclear whether older adults who exercise habitually demonstrate slower rates of recovery. We determined whether older adults who are physically active demonstrate slower rates of recovery from unaccustomed strenuous exercise compared with younger peers. Healthy young sedentary (n=10, 28±2 years), young endurance-trained (n=15, 27±2 years), and older endurance-trained (n=14, 58±2 years) men and women were studied. Participants performed 45 min of downhill running at 65% of their maximal oxygen consumption. Visual analog pain scores of muscle groups increased at 24, 48, and 72 h in all three groups (p<0.05), and changes in the muscular pain scale of the legs was smaller in the older trained group than in the young trained group. Maximum isometric strengths at 90° decreased in all groups at 24 h, but the recovery rates were not different at 72 h among the groups. Plasma creatine kinase activity and myoglobin concentration increased at 24 h following downhill running and returned to baseline at 48 h in both the young and older trained groups. The present findings are not consistent with the prevailing notion that older trained adults have a slower rate of recovery from strenuous exercise.

Downhill Running: What Are The Effects and How Can We Adapt? A Narrative Review

“…Many studies have investigated adaptations to DR in adult populations, but only a limited number have included adolescents, pre-pubescent children and older populations. Some studies did not report differences in indirect markers of muscle damage between pre-pubescent children and adults [191], or between young and older trained triathletes [180] after DR. Other studies reported trends towards higher levels of indirect markers of muscle damage (neutrophil counts, plasma CK and DOMS) in young men compared to older men after DR [8,142] but with comparable recovery kinetics [8]. Additional studies are required to better understand the effect of maturation and/or age on the physiological responses to DR.…”

“…Thus, the DR modality has often been used for different purposes including: (1) studying the recovery kinetics of physical performance following muscle damage (e.g. [7][8][9]); (2) testing the reliability and validity of varied techniques to assess EIMD (e.g. [6,10]); (3) studying the effects of strenuous exercise on physiological adaptations and/or alterations (e.g.…”

“…, 44, 46, 50, 59-62, 65-67, 70, 72-75, 77, 80, 81, 84, 85, 87-90, 92, 121, 134-183] and DOMS[8,15,38,58,60,66,71,75,84,89,135,151,156,159,171,178,179,182,[184][185][186][187][188] peak from 24 to 48 h post-DR. Immediately post DR, a greater reduction in isometric MVC force/torque is observed in untrained (mean: − 23.5%; 95% CI: [− 26.9% to − 17.2%] compared to trained populations (− 16.4%; 95% CI: [ − 19.5% to -12.3%]).…”

Age Differences in Recovery Rate Following an Aerobic-Based Exercise Protocol Inducing Muscle Damage Among Amateur, Male Athletes

“…However, changes in objective outcomes, including range of motion, markers of muscle damage such as levels of circulating muscle proteins, and performance tests did not differ between younger (27 ± 2) and older (58 ± 2) trained adults following a 45-min downhill run. That study ( Hayashi et al, 2019 ), however, did not assess inflammatory markers or examine changes in muscle integrity (for example via magnetic resonance imaging; MRI) in order to evaluate differences in the effect of exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD) between age groups at the muscle fibers level.…”

Downhill running impairs peripheral but not central neuromuscular indices in elbow flexor muscles

“… 3 For example, after downhill running exercises, muscle damage markers such as the knee extension strength and the muscle soreness have been found to increase and remain elevated for days. 4 , 5 Anecdotally, this is usually reflected by a longer-than-normal recovery time following a long-distance race that contains a downhill running portion, when compared to the level or uphill running with the same running distance or intensity.…”