When it comes to age and your LT, absolute work rate or running speed at your threshold decreases with advancing age in endurance athletes Iwaoka et al, ; Maffulli et al, These decreases do not directly correspond with decreases in your VO2 max, and the rate of loss is much less severe. Exercise economy is determined by a number of physiological factors that include muscle fiber type.

In regards to endurance sports, the percentage of type 1 muscle fibers are associated with increased exercise economy. With regards to aging, well-trained masters athletes have a similar muscle fiber distribution to performance-matched younger athletes Coggan et al.

It has also been shown through a year longitudinal study that maintenance of strenuous endurance training, the muscle fiber distribution did not change with trained Masters athletes Trappe et al. As we age, the composition of our muscles and bones will change. This is especially true for masters female athletes at post-menopausal ages.

Estrogen plays an important role in bone remodeling and keeps the decline of bone loss in check. After menopause, the protective effects of estrogen are lost and women can experience bone loss at a rate of up to percent per year. Strength training is beneficial for this population because it stresses the musculoskeletal system which stimulates the remodeling process of the bones.

This helps to mitigate further bone loss and helps to build bone density in older individuals. Strength training is especially important for athletes between the ages of 40 and 60 and it is paramount to include in training all year for all athletes over 60 years of age.

In addition, it can be beneficial to pay special attention to postural exercises that can target areas such as the upper back to strengthen the muscles between the shoulder blades which helps prevent sloping shoulders and rounding of the upper back.

Balance exercises can also be helpful for older athletes to reduce the risk of falling. When it comes to recovery , the timing of sessions will be paramount.

When it comes to structuring a schedule, be cognisant of placing back-to-back hard workouts. I still do all the same work, but I have to include strength training year-round and take a couple of extra days between harder sessions. Perhaps you have a family, a full-time job, and additional obligations that require your time and energy.

Ensuring that you are not running yourself into the ground is more important than ever since you may not have the time to fit 10 different recovery modalities after training.

Be sure to nail post-session nutrition, mobility, and as always: sleep! What does this mean for all of us getting older?

To put it simply: use it or lose it. While we cannot control all of the changes that will occur to us physiologically, we can do our best to mitigate the rate of loss by continuing with a good training regimen, strength training, and adapting our recovery. As is important with racing and life itself, focusing on the pieces we can control is our best offense and defense when it comes to the battle of age.

Having a good understanding of how your body is feeling can help you determine if today you give yourself the green light, or to back off. It is commonly said that age is just a number.

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Wahoo X: One Subscription. Voller Zugriff. Blog Markenbotschafter Wahoo Filme. Skip to content. This value has two measurements: absolute and relative. Dionigi conducted short semi-structured interviews with Masters athletes aged 55—94; even gender split at the Eighth Australian Masters Games and held in-depth interviews with 28 athletes 15 women, 13 men, aged 60—89 who had competed in these Games.

The themes to emerge from this research were common across participants, regardless of individual differences i. Discussions with these older athletes about why they compete in sport and what it means to them revealed that participation in Masters sport was a key strategy for negotiating the aging process.

As a result, the participants expressed a sense of personal empowerment and control over their body and lives that they saw as direct benefits of their involvement in competitive sport. This finding highlights that their sport participation is in part a story of resilience, enthusiasm, pride, determination, lives well lived, and lives lived to their potential.

For example, Max, an year-old runner from the study by Roper et al. Many older athletes recognize that fragility, dependency, and illness are possible outcomes of long life. In other words, participation in sport has the potential to assist in the process of negotiating an aging identity.

Given the robust relationship between continued involvement in physical activity and maintenance of physical and cognitive functioning [ 59 ], possession of an adaptive exercise motivational profile is a desirable quality for older persons.

Motivation research conducted on Masters athletes thus far suggests they participate in sport for many reasons, including enjoyment, desire for personal achievement and winning, social affiliation and recognition, and health and fitness reasons [ 60 ].

The conclusions are limited, however, because most studies were exploratory in nature and conducted mainly in recreational rather than competitive sport settings.

For instance, a recent study [ 61 ] found that recreational Masters marathon runners reported a greater degree of functional commitment, which was related to feelings of satisfaction and opportunities associated with participation in Masters sport e.

However, additional research in this area is critical. Scanlan et al. Feelings of enjoyment and self-identification with the activity reflect functional commitment which is adaptive, whereas social pressures or constraints may lead to a feeling of obligatory commitment which is maladaptive.

Weiss and Ferrer-Caja [ 64 ] found a higher burnout rate for individuals who reported feeling compelled to continue participating in their sport i. However, the maintenance of intense physical activity may indicate a denial of existential issues e.

Some researchers have suggested that Masters athletes are important role models for an aging society. Indeed, older individuals who accomplish remarkable athletic feats are often profiled in the popular media, which may influence the way that society as a whole views the elderly and the aging process.

Less clear, however, is how these aging athletes affect other seniors. Ory et al. The authors indicated that seniors were most likely to respond positively to images of exercise that included social interaction i.

Subsequent research by Horton and colleagues [ 66 ] adds some complexity to these assertions. Qualitative interviews with seniors investigated their reactions to an elite Masters level runner. Reactions fell into three distinct groups: a those who found his example inspirational, b those who thought that he might be inspirational for a certain group of seniors who were already moderately active, and c those who found his example distinctly unappealing.

Generally speaking, there was a slight tendency for participants who reported more daily physical activity in their own lives to categorize the elite athlete as an appropriate role model for seniors.

There were, however, exceptions to this—sedentary participants who considered him inspirational, and active participants who did not.

I mean… to look at the picture to me is almost stressful to look at. It turns me right off. Furthermore, much of the information presented in this discussion paper is drawn from research in indirectly related areas. More to the point, almost none of the research presented comes from empirical studies explicitly designed to test the primary postulation driving this paper—the potential for participation in sport to provide older adults with beneficial qualities that can be used to improve the quality of their aging experience.

If we return to the conception of Lerner et al. Although the specific assets change, existing research suggests that the type of external and internal assets developed through sport participation may be similar.

For example, older adults may feel particularly supported by family and friends external asset and challenged to further enhance their abilities and skills internal asset through their engagement in Masters sport programs. Furthermore, older people may believe that maintaining health and fitness through sport participation is a constructive use of their time external asset that provides them with a sense of personal empowerment internal asset.

On a broader spectrum, moving forward requires addressing two key questions, which we consider below. Generally, previous research suggests that higher doses of physical activity are associated with improved health. For example, greater rates of physical activity are related to decreased sick days at work [ 67 ], lower rates of cardiovascular disease [ 68 ], and reduced total adiposity [ 69 ].

At present, it is unclear whether the benefits afforded to older adults described in this paper are related to participation in sport or simply a by-product of engagement in physical activity.

Moreover, existing studies that have examined the relationship between physical activity and health outcomes have typically examined only single dimensions of health e. Further research is necessary with study designs utilizing highly athletic i.

The recent qualitative research on older athletes [e. These perceived benefits from sport participation seem to go beyond what is commonly derived from physical activity, further reinforcing the need for more work in this area. As previously outlined, there is a growing body of research that suggests numerous negative experiences and outcomes are associated with youth sport settings [ 44 , 46 ].

Potential negative experiences and outcomes of sport participation in older adults should also be examined. For example, there is mounting evidence that the dose—response relationship between physical activity and health outcomes is not linear.

Excessive aerobic training is associated with increased risk of overuse injuries [ 72 ] and immune system dysfunction [ 73 ].

The dose—response relationship between physical activity involvement and health benefits may vary depending on the health outcome under consideration. Vallerand and colleagues [ 76 , 77 ] found that individuals can have two distinct types of passion. Obsessive passion refers to controlled internalization that creates internal pressure to engage in the activity.

For example, an athlete with an obsessive passion for running would report having no choice but to attend a scheduled running workout. Harmonious passion refers to an autonomous internalization that leads one to choose to engage in the activity. An athlete with harmonious passion would be able to put aside the workout if the need arises.

Their research with adolescent and young-adult athletes suggests that obsessive passion is associated with negative affective and behavioral consequences and that harmonious passion is related to positive consequences. It remains to be seen if this holds true for Masters athletes.

For instance, due to the eventuality of decline and disability commonly associated with a long life, attempting to resist or avoid the aging process by continuing an extremely active lifestyle and physical training can become problematic for an aging identity [ 21 ], especially if it indicates a denial or avoidance of issues that have to be faced in later life.

In particular, when older athletes can no longer participate in sport, some may find it hard to cope [ 21 ]. Such an experience may be accompanied by feelings of guilt, shame, and worthlessness. The extent to which these potential negative consequences of continued sport participation affect development in later life needs further exploration.

In the sport and exercise psychology field, very little research has been conducted with older participants [ 79 , 80 ]. This realization is particularly troubling considering the potential impact of this population on the sustainability of health care systems in many countries [ 81 — 83 ].

This discussion paper is a call to researchers for further work in this area to contribute to our understanding of how physical activity in general, and sport participation in particular, affects development across the lifespan.

An important concern in moving this research forward relates to the hazard of applying frameworks from youth development to older persons. Infantilization of older persons i. As a result, it is paramount that researchers in this area recognize the differences in development as it pertains to younger and older cohorts.

Historically, developmentalists have almost exclusively focused on childhood and youth as the primary window of development. The present review extended this discussion to older persons primarily due to the extreme shift in population demographics most industrialized nations are currently experiencing.

A central question is whether participation in sport provides desirable outcomes throughout the lifespan that go above and beyond those garnered from simple engagement in general physical activity.

Future work in this area will inform public health messaging regarding involvement in sport and physical activity at all ages. Oeppen J, Vaupel JW Broken limits to life expectancy.

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J Pers Soc Psychol — Ageing Soc — Article Google Scholar. Grant BC Physical activity: not a popular leisure choice in later life. Soc Leis — Nosek BA, Banaji MR, Greenwald AG Harvesting implicit group attitudes and beliefs from a demonstration web site. Group Dyn — Levy BR, Myers LM Preventive health behaviours influences by self-perceptions of aging.

Prev Med — J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 55B— Vertinsky P Stereotypes of aging women and exercise: a historical perspective. Starkes JL, Weir PL, Young B What does it take for older expert athletes to continue to excel?

In: Starkes JL, Ericsson KA eds Expert performance in sport. Human Kinetics, Windsor, pp — Brookes A Ed Whitlock has resounding victory in Rotterdam with another sub Canada!

Dionigi RA Competing for life: older people, sport and ageing. Saarbrüecken, VDM Dr. Müller, Germany. Dionigi RA Competitive sport and aging: the need for qualitative sociological research. PubMed Google Scholar. Taylor CB, Sallis JF, Needle R The relation of physical activity and exercise to mental health.

Pub Health Rep — CAS Google Scholar. Fraser-Thomas J, Côté J, Deakin J Youth sport programs: an avenue to foster positive youth development. Phys Ed Sport Pedagogy — Snyder CR, Lopez SJ Handbook of positive psychology.

Oxford University Press, Oxford. Holt NL Positive youth development through sport. Routledge, New York. Godbey G Leisure and leisure services in the 21st century. Venture Publishing, State College. Coakley J Sports in society: issues and controversies, 9th edn. McGraw-Hill, New York.

Biggs S Choosing not to be old? Masks, bodies and identity management in later life. Kleiber DA Leisure experience and human development: a dialectical approach. Basic, New York. Dionigi RA Leisure and identity management in later life: understanding competitive sport participation among older adults.

World Leis J — Phoenix C, Sparkes A Being Fred: big stories, small stories and the accomplishment of a positive ageing identity. Qual Res — Benson PL All kids are our kids: what communities must do to raise caring and responsible children and adolescents.

Jossey-Bass, San Francisco. Pittman KJ Promoting youth development: strengthening the role of youth serving and community organizations. Academy for Educational Development, Center for Youth Development and Policy Research, Washington.

Larson RW Toward a psychology of positive youth development. Am Psychol — Larson RW, Verma S How children and adolescents spent time across the world: work, play, and developmental opportunities.

Psychol Bull — Eccles JS, Barber BL Student council, volunteering, basketball, or marching band: what kind of extracurricular involvement matters? J Adolesc Res — Shields DL, Bredemeier BL Advances in sport morality research.

In: Tenenbaum G, Eklund RC eds Handbook of sport psychology, 3rd edn. Wiley, Hoboken, pp — Lerner RM, Fisher CB, Weinberg RA Toward a science for and of the people: promoting civil society through the application of developmental science.

Child Dev — Appl Dev Sci — Leffert N, Benson P, Scales P, Sharma A, Drake D, Blyth D Developmental assets: measurement and prediction of risk behaviors among adolescents.

Scales P, Benson P, Leffert N, Blyth DA Contribution of developmental assets to the prediction of thriving among adolescents. Scales P, Leffert N Developmental assets: a synthesis of the scientific research on adolescent development. Search Institute, Minneapolis. Sport Psychol — J Youth Dev J Youth Adolesc — Hansen DM, Larson R The youth experience survey 2.

Hansen DM, Larson RW, Dworkin JB What adolescents learn in organized youth activities: a survey of self-reported developmental experiences. J Res Adolesc — Baker J, Horton S, Pearce W, Deakin J Maintenance of skilled performance with age: a descriptive examination of professional golfers.

Starkes JL, Weir PL, Singh P, Hodges NJ, Kerr T Aging and the retention of sport expertise. Int J Sport Psychol — Hagberg JM, Allen WK, Seals DR, Hurley BF, Ehsani AA, Holloszy JO A hemodynamic comparison of young and older endurance athletes during exercise.

J Appl Physiol — CAS PubMed Google Scholar. Eskurza I, Donato AJ, Moreau KL, Seals DR, Tanaka H Changes in maximal aerobic capacity with age in endurance-trained women: 7-yr follow-up. Hawkins SA, Marcell TJ, Jaque V, Wiswell RA A longitudinal assessment of change in VO 2 max and maximal heart rate in master athletes.

Med Sci Sports Exerc — Pimentel AE, Gentile CL, Tanaka H, Seals DR, Gates PE Greater rate of decline in maximal aerobic capacity with age in endurance-trained than in sedentary men.

Pollock ML, Foster C, Knapp D, Rod JL, Schmidt DH Effect of age and training on aerobic capacity and body composition of master athletes. Dionigi RA Competitive sport as leisure in later life: negotiations, discourse and aging. Leis Sci — Ann Leis Res — Bortz WM Disuse and aging.

JAMA — Wilson RC, Sullivan PJ, Myers ND, Feltz DL Sources of sport confidence of master athletes. J Sport Ex Psychol — Routledge R, Medic N, Starkes JL, Weir P, Baker J Lifelong commitment to sport: modeling from masters marathon runners.

Manuscript submitted for publication. Ryan RM, Deci EL Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: classic definitions and new directions. Contemp Educ Psychol — Scanlan TK, Carpenter PJ, Schmidt GW, Simons JP, Keeler B An introduction to the sport commitment model.

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In: Nelson TD ed Ageism: stereotyping and prejudice against older persons. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 27— Ed Gerontol — Proper KI, van den Heuvel SG, De Vroome EM, Hildebrandt VH, Van der Beek AJ Dose—response relation between physical activity and sick leave.

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What is the age for the fastest ultra-marathon performance in time-limited races from 6 h to 10 days? Age PubMed Abstract CrossRef Full Text Google Scholar. Lazarus, N. Declining performance of master athletes: silhouettes of the trajectory of healthy human ageing?

Lepers, R. Master athletes are extending the limits of human endurance. Centenarian athletes: examples of ultimate human performance? Age Ageing 45, — Mueller, S.

Physiological alterations after a marathon in the first year-old male finisher: case study. Springerplus Runner, B.

Oldest Finishers of Famous Ultra Races. Schneider, A. Improved performance in master runners competing in the european championships between and Strength Cond. Stohr, A. An analysis of participation and performance of km ultra-marathons worldwide. Public Health Swam, S.

Jaring Timmerman - Oldest Masters Swimmer Passes Away. Tanaka, H. Aging and physiological lessons from master athletes. Unterweger, C. Increased participation and improved performance in age group backstroke master swimmers from to years at the FINA world masters championships from to Vitti, A.

Citation: Knechtle B, Lepers R, Nikolaidis PT and Sousa CV Editorial: The Elderly Athlete. Received: 28 March ; Accepted: 08 April ; Published: 07 May Edited and reviewed by: Giuseppe D'Antona , University of Pavia, Italy. Copyright © Knechtle, Lepers, Nikolaidis and Sousa.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY. The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author s and the copyright owner s are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice.

No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. knechtle hispeed. Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers.

Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Woo okay, so what does all this have to do with getting older and performing? Well, studies have shown that out of the three indicators of exercise performance, the primary mechanism for a decrease lies within your VO 2 max.

Joyner, ; Coyle, This decrease in your VO 2 is due to changes in the following:. As discussed previously, your VO 2 max is the product of both cardiac output and your a-vO 2 diff.

Your cardiac output is the product of your stroke volume and heart rate. If we put these facts together, all of the variables that comprise your VO 2 and Cardiac output take a hit as we get older. Cue the violins. While VO 2 max may have the most significant decrease in performance due to age, a decrease in your lactate threshold comes in second.

Lactate threshold LT is typically measured in a lab where this level defines the exercise intensity at which blood lactate concentration increases significantly above baseline. When it comes to age and your LT, absolute work rate or running speed at your threshold decreases with advancing age in endurance athletes Iwaoka et al, ; Maffulli et al, These decreases do not directly correspond with decreases in your VO2 max, and the rate of loss is much less severe.

Exercise economy is determined by a number of physiological factors that include muscle fiber type. In regards to endurance sports, the percentage of type 1 muscle fibers are associated with increased exercise economy.

With regards to aging, well-trained masters athletes have a similar muscle fiber distribution to performance-matched younger athletes Coggan et al. It has also been shown through a year longitudinal study that maintenance of strenuous endurance training, the muscle fiber distribution did not change with trained Masters athletes Trappe et al.

As we age, the composition of our muscles and bones will change. This is especially true for masters female athletes at post-menopausal ages. Estrogen plays an important role in bone remodeling and keeps the decline of bone loss in check.

After menopause, the protective effects of estrogen are lost and women can experience bone loss at a rate of up to percent per year.

Strength training is beneficial for this population because it stresses the musculoskeletal system which stimulates the remodeling process of the bones. This helps to mitigate further bone loss and helps to build bone density in older individuals. Strength training is especially important for athletes between the ages of 40 and 60 and it is paramount to include in training all year for all athletes over 60 years of age.

In addition, it can be beneficial to pay special attention to postural exercises that can target areas such as the upper back to strengthen the muscles between the shoulder blades which helps prevent sloping shoulders and rounding of the upper back.

Balance exercises can also be helpful for older athletes to reduce the risk of falling. When it comes to recovery , the timing of sessions will be paramount.

When it comes to structuring a schedule, be cognisant of placing back-to-back hard workouts. I still do all the same work, but I have to include strength training year-round and take a couple of extra days between harder sessions.

Perhaps you have a family, a full-time job, and additional obligations that require your time and energy. Ensuring that you are not running yourself into the ground is more important than ever since you may not have the time to fit 10 different recovery modalities after training.

Be sure to nail post-session nutrition, mobility, and as always: sleep! What does this mean for all of us getting older? To put it simply: use it or lose it. While we cannot control all of the changes that will occur to us physiologically, we can do our best to mitigate the rate of loss by continuing with a good training regimen, strength training, and adapting our recovery.

As is important with racing and life itself, focusing on the pieces we can control is our best offense and defense when it comes to the battle of age.

Further research is required to elucidate the mechanisms by which these nutrients may induce favourable changes in skeletal muscle and to determine the appropriate dosing and timing of nutrient intakes to support active aging. Keywords: Carbohydrate periodization; Creatine; Protein; Skeletal muscle; n-3PUFA.

Abstract Skeletal muscle mass losses with age are associated with negative health consequences, including an increased risk of developing metabolic disease and the loss of independence.

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I want to get healthier. Close Health Alerts from Harvard Medical School Get helpful tips and guidance for everything from fighting inflammation to finding the best diets for weight loss Combined, the results from Hagberg et al.

and Pollock et al. demonstrate that maintaining training intensity helps individuals sustain a higher level of aerobic performance with aging. A more critical question for the current review is whether involvement in Masters sport provides additional psychosocial benefits akin to those suggested for youth involvement in sport and whether those effects go beyond those derived from general engagement in physical activity.

There is a paucity of research considering this issue; however, the results have been largely consistent and provide a fertile ground for further work in this area. The following discussion suggests sport participation can facilitate positive development in older adults by negotiating the aging process, providing continued motivation for physical activity, and challenging age-related stereotypes.

Qualitative research by Dionigi [ 21 , 22 , 31 , 56 , 57 ] highlights how sport participation can assist the management of an aging identity.

Dionigi conducted short semi-structured interviews with Masters athletes aged 55—94; even gender split at the Eighth Australian Masters Games and held in-depth interviews with 28 athletes 15 women, 13 men, aged 60—89 who had competed in these Games. The themes to emerge from this research were common across participants, regardless of individual differences i.

Discussions with these older athletes about why they compete in sport and what it means to them revealed that participation in Masters sport was a key strategy for negotiating the aging process. As a result, the participants expressed a sense of personal empowerment and control over their body and lives that they saw as direct benefits of their involvement in competitive sport.

This finding highlights that their sport participation is in part a story of resilience, enthusiasm, pride, determination, lives well lived, and lives lived to their potential. For example, Max, an year-old runner from the study by Roper et al. Many older athletes recognize that fragility, dependency, and illness are possible outcomes of long life.

In other words, participation in sport has the potential to assist in the process of negotiating an aging identity. Given the robust relationship between continued involvement in physical activity and maintenance of physical and cognitive functioning [ 59 ], possession of an adaptive exercise motivational profile is a desirable quality for older persons.

Motivation research conducted on Masters athletes thus far suggests they participate in sport for many reasons, including enjoyment, desire for personal achievement and winning, social affiliation and recognition, and health and fitness reasons [ 60 ].

The conclusions are limited, however, because most studies were exploratory in nature and conducted mainly in recreational rather than competitive sport settings. For instance, a recent study [ 61 ] found that recreational Masters marathon runners reported a greater degree of functional commitment, which was related to feelings of satisfaction and opportunities associated with participation in Masters sport e.

However, additional research in this area is critical. Scanlan et al. Feelings of enjoyment and self-identification with the activity reflect functional commitment which is adaptive, whereas social pressures or constraints may lead to a feeling of obligatory commitment which is maladaptive.

Weiss and Ferrer-Caja [ 64 ] found a higher burnout rate for individuals who reported feeling compelled to continue participating in their sport i. However, the maintenance of intense physical activity may indicate a denial of existential issues e. Some researchers have suggested that Masters athletes are important role models for an aging society.

Indeed, older individuals who accomplish remarkable athletic feats are often profiled in the popular media, which may influence the way that society as a whole views the elderly and the aging process.

Less clear, however, is how these aging athletes affect other seniors. Ory et al. The authors indicated that seniors were most likely to respond positively to images of exercise that included social interaction i.

Subsequent research by Horton and colleagues [ 66 ] adds some complexity to these assertions. Qualitative interviews with seniors investigated their reactions to an elite Masters level runner. Reactions fell into three distinct groups: a those who found his example inspirational, b those who thought that he might be inspirational for a certain group of seniors who were already moderately active, and c those who found his example distinctly unappealing.

Generally speaking, there was a slight tendency for participants who reported more daily physical activity in their own lives to categorize the elite athlete as an appropriate role model for seniors. There were, however, exceptions to this—sedentary participants who considered him inspirational, and active participants who did not.

I mean… to look at the picture to me is almost stressful to look at. It turns me right off. Furthermore, much of the information presented in this discussion paper is drawn from research in indirectly related areas.

More to the point, almost none of the research presented comes from empirical studies explicitly designed to test the primary postulation driving this paper—the potential for participation in sport to provide older adults with beneficial qualities that can be used to improve the quality of their aging experience.

If we return to the conception of Lerner et al. Although the specific assets change, existing research suggests that the type of external and internal assets developed through sport participation may be similar.

For example, older adults may feel particularly supported by family and friends external asset and challenged to further enhance their abilities and skills internal asset through their engagement in Masters sport programs. Furthermore, older people may believe that maintaining health and fitness through sport participation is a constructive use of their time external asset that provides them with a sense of personal empowerment internal asset.

On a broader spectrum, moving forward requires addressing two key questions, which we consider below. Generally, previous research suggests that higher doses of physical activity are associated with improved health.

For example, greater rates of physical activity are related to decreased sick days at work [ 67 ], lower rates of cardiovascular disease [ 68 ], and reduced total adiposity [ 69 ].

At present, it is unclear whether the benefits afforded to older adults described in this paper are related to participation in sport or simply a by-product of engagement in physical activity.

Moreover, existing studies that have examined the relationship between physical activity and health outcomes have typically examined only single dimensions of health e. Further research is necessary with study designs utilizing highly athletic i.

The recent qualitative research on older athletes [e. These perceived benefits from sport participation seem to go beyond what is commonly derived from physical activity, further reinforcing the need for more work in this area. As previously outlined, there is a growing body of research that suggests numerous negative experiences and outcomes are associated with youth sport settings [ 44 , 46 ].

Potential negative experiences and outcomes of sport participation in older adults should also be examined. For example, there is mounting evidence that the dose—response relationship between physical activity and health outcomes is not linear.

Excessive aerobic training is associated with increased risk of overuse injuries [ 72 ] and immune system dysfunction [ 73 ]. The dose—response relationship between physical activity involvement and health benefits may vary depending on the health outcome under consideration.

Vallerand and colleagues [ 76 , 77 ] found that individuals can have two distinct types of passion. Obsessive passion refers to controlled internalization that creates internal pressure to engage in the activity. For example, an athlete with an obsessive passion for running would report having no choice but to attend a scheduled running workout.

Harmonious passion refers to an autonomous internalization that leads one to choose to engage in the activity. An athlete with harmonious passion would be able to put aside the workout if the need arises. Their research with adolescent and young-adult athletes suggests that obsessive passion is associated with negative affective and behavioral consequences and that harmonious passion is related to positive consequences.

It remains to be seen if this holds true for Masters athletes. For instance, due to the eventuality of decline and disability commonly associated with a long life, attempting to resist or avoid the aging process by continuing an extremely active lifestyle and physical training can become problematic for an aging identity [ 21 ], especially if it indicates a denial or avoidance of issues that have to be faced in later life.

In particular, when older athletes can no longer participate in sport, some may find it hard to cope [ 21 ].

Such an experience may be accompanied by feelings of guilt, shame, and worthlessness. The extent to which these potential negative consequences of continued sport participation affect development in later life needs further exploration.

In the sport and exercise psychology field, very little research has been conducted with older participants [ 79 , 80 ]. This realization is particularly troubling considering the potential impact of this population on the sustainability of health care systems in many countries [ 81 — 83 ].

This discussion paper is a call to researchers for further work in this area to contribute to our understanding of how physical activity in general, and sport participation in particular, affects development across the lifespan. An important concern in moving this research forward relates to the hazard of applying frameworks from youth development to older persons.

Infantilization of older persons i. As a result, it is paramount that researchers in this area recognize the differences in development as it pertains to younger and older cohorts. Historically, developmentalists have almost exclusively focused on childhood and youth as the primary window of development.

The present review extended this discussion to older persons primarily due to the extreme shift in population demographics most industrialized nations are currently experiencing.

A central question is whether participation in sport provides desirable outcomes throughout the lifespan that go above and beyond those garnered from simple engagement in general physical activity.

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