as you age you need to learn how to train smarter

match your sports training to your body's stage of life

As our bodies change and age, our exercise regimen and  outlook must change as well. Jessica Seaton, D.C., an orthopedic chiropractor and chair-person of the USA Masters Swimming (USMS) sports medicine committee, recommends that athletes hone their workouts for what they can do now – not what they were once capable of.  

"Athletes show certain patterns as they grow older," Seaton said. "In their early 20s, athletes can train irregularly, train hard, injure themselves and bounce back quite quickly. By their late 30s, irregular training, training too hard or training too little make a bigger difference than it did 10 years earlier. By the time athletes reach the age of 40, they’re not spring chickens anymore. Irregular training has more dire consequences, often leading more quickly to injury, and often of a more serious nature. As the years go on, all of this gets more pronounced.

There is one caveat, Seaton said: We each have our own physiological program. Everyone ages on slightly different schedules. Factors that affect the speed of aging include genetics, illness, quantity and quality of exercise, nutrition, habits such as drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes, outlook and attitude, and stress.