This is what I am up against.

This is what I am up against.

Muscle mass can be at least partially maintained with strength or endurance training. Mitochondrial density and capillary density can be maintained with vigorous exercise training. Stroke volume can be increased with exercise training, but heart rate declines irrespective of activity level, resulting in an age related decrease in cardiac output and VO2 max. Muscle glycogen content can be increased in older individuals, but the studies that have been conducted to date have used low intensity or short term training programs and have not increased muscle glycogen levels up to those of younger people. Exercise probably enhances the function of the neuromuscular junction, and allows better recruitment of skeletal muscle. Based on the findings presented, our model predicts that sedentary older adults should have dramatically lower short term maximal performance than younger adults. However, an older adult who is trained at the same volume and intensity as a younger adult should be capable of performances similar to his/her younger counterpart. The unalterable decrease in heart rate and consequential reduction in VO2 max may prevent the older individual from training at the same volume and intensity as a younger athlete, and consequently, performance of the older athlete will be limited by the reduction in absolute training volume and intensity. However, the trained older adult should almost certainly have performances superior to those of younger and older sedentary adults, and therefore may have a better ability to cope with the physiological demands of free living.

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In an earlier study, the researchers found that the muscles of octogenarian men also failed to gain strength with the exercise program. Together, the studies show that the muscles of octogenarian men and women are far less responsive to improving with exercise, even compared to people only 10 years younger.

“The message of the study is that exercise is good for octogenarians, just not as good as we thought it would be,” Dr. Trappe said. The study also suggests that it is better to build as much muscle mass as possible earlier in life to ensure more muscle strength in later life. “We should do all we can to educate people to build up the muscle before 80,” he said.

See comments for training zones using a Heart Rate Monitor. I take my Max HR to be 155 or thereabouts.