Influence of age and physical training on measures of cardiorespiratory and muscle endurance

This study describes associations between age, physical training and measures of muscle and cardiorespiratory endurance. The subjects were 5079 healthy male soldiers aged 18-53 years from 14 Army installations in the United States. The subjects completed as many push-ups as possible in 2 min, as many sit-ups as possible in 2 min, and performed a timed 3.2-km run. The training level was assessed by asking the subjects two questions about the frequency (times each week) and duration (hours each week) of their physical training. For all three performance events there were significant declines with age, but at a given age, groups that trained more demonstrated higher performance levels than groups that trained less. For the 3.2-km run, the age-associated rate of performance decline was less in the groups that trained more, and greater amounts of training resulted in progressively less performance decline with age. For push-ups and sit-ups, the training level did not systematically influence the age-related rate of performance decline. The results suggest that tasks involving different physiological systems may be influenced differentially by age and training. Training may slow age-associated performance declines in tasks requiring cardiorespiratory endurance but not in tasks requiring muscle endurance.