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Every week, Dr. Jean-Marc Sène, sports doctor, presents his sports column in Priorité Santé. This week, he gives advice for playing sports when you get older.
What are your tips for doing appropriate physical activity as you get older, especially after 60?
There is no age to practice a sport and be in good shape. After 60, if your body naturally weakens, it’s not too late to improve your physical condition.
Aging has deleterious effects on physical condition. Cardio-respiratory capacity (VO2 max) decreases by 5 to 10% per decade from the age of 30. Muscle mass, strength and power decrease with age, and by age 80, older people have lost half of their initial muscle mass.
Flexibility decreases and neuromuscular capacities, in particular balance, are altered with advancing age. The elderly are more frequently inactive, which is at the origin of a secondary deconditioning further reducing their functional capacities.
Thus, some people with the same chronological age may have very different physiological states.
Is it possible to identify different groups?
Absolutely. Within the elderly population, several groups can be distinguished: robust elderly people, frail elderly people and dependent elderly people.
Robust elderly people are in good health, without chronic disabling pathology, and have high functional performance.
Frail elderly people are autonomous, but they have less ability to cope with stress, whatever its nature. They have a mild to moderate disability and more or less reduced functional performance.
Dependent elderly people have a severe disability and a great loss of autonomy for the basic activities of daily living. They have physical and/or cognitive disabilities and are often polypathological.
What activity do you recommend, taking into account the state of fragility?
In robust older people, general recommendations for PA are the same as for young adults.
In fallers, the PA program must include balance exercises, muscle strengthening exercises – particularly of the lower limbs – and cardio-respiratory endurance exercises, in order to reduce the risk of falls.
For older people who have difficulty or cannot follow instructions during AP. PA sessions must therefore be adapted and supervised, and organized individually or in small groups by trained professionals.
We can systematically offer:
- Physical activity of daily living: Everyday, walking, climbing stairs, gardening, cleaning, etc.
- Endurance exercises: 3-5 days per week, aquatic and stationary bike exercises are advised for those with a limited tolerance to weight-bearing exercises
- Muscle strengthening exercises, ≥ 2 times per week, strength training, weight bearing, etc. involving major muscle groups.
- Stretching exercises≥ 2 times per week, Stretching to the point of tension or slight discomfort, eg Pilates or Yoga.
- balance exercises are particularly indicated for fallers or individuals with mobility limitations. They are effective in preventing falls if they are performed at least 2 or 3 days a week. The practice of Tai Chi Chuan and static or dynamic balance exercises, in groups or individually at home, reduce the risk of falls.