It’s not easy to run at the same pace as you did when you were young, but new research suggests that strengthening your feet and ankles can help your maintain your running speed as you age.
The study, conducted by researchers at East Carolina University and Wake Forest University, indicates that calf and ankle weakness can contribute to biomechanical stride changes while we run, which can slow us down. But by strengthening our ankles, we can reverse this trend.
“Our research indicates that aging runners could perhaps maintain their speed through increased calf-muscle strength and power exercises,” said study author Dr. Paul DeVita.
Running Research
For the study, researchers examined biomechanical running strides of a wide range of runners between the ages of 23 and 59. The runners ran an average of 34 miles a week, and all were lean and highly fit individuals.
When researchers analyzed the biomechanical stride patterns, they realized:
- Older runners maintained roughly the same stride frequency, but they had significantly shorter strides, which reduced their overall speed.
- Running speed was slowed by about 20 percent from age 20 to 59, and the loss of ankle power during that time frame was more than 47 percent.
- Ankle joint and calf muscle strengthening can help reduce this loss in ankle power as we age.
Dr. DeVita suggests that older runners add regular lower-body exercises to maintain ankle power. He noted that runners should focus on slow, heavy-weight strengthening exercises and faster, lower-weight workouts to strengthen their legs. He also cautioned that runners need to take it slow when it comes to adding new strength training exercises to their regimen.
“One must be careful with any exercise, especially a new one. Anyone can overdo the amount of loading a tissue can take,” Dr. Devita concluded.
Dr. Silverman comments
This is an intriguing study, and it speaks to the importance of regular strength training exercises as we age. It gets much tougher to maintain our fitness as we age, but we need to do it.
Regularly investing time into our health and fitness is crucial, so make it a point to get out and exercise every day.
