Maximal aerobic power in aging men: insights from 1-hour cycling unaccompanied record

Purpose: We analyzed best 1-hour unaccompanied performances of Master athletes in ages ranging from 35 to 105 years in order to estimate the decay of Maximal Aerobic Power (MAP) across the spectrum of age. Methods: MAP at the various ages was estimated by computing the metabolic power (̇c) maintained to cover the distances during best 1-hour unaccompanied performances established by Master athletes of different classes of age and by assuming that they were able to maintain during 1 hour of exhaustive exercise a Ėc equal to 88 % of their MAP. Results: MAP started monotonically decreasing at 47 years of age. Thereafter, it showed an average percent rate of decrease of about 14 % for decade up to 105 years of age, similarly to other classes of Master athletes. Conclusions: The results confirm, by extending the analysis to centennial subjects, that MAP seem to start declining from the middle of the fifth decade of age with an average percent decay that is faster than the one traditionally reported even though one maintains a very active style of live. The proposed approach may be applied to other types of human locomotion of which the relationship between speed and Ė is known.