Marathon Men

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The Senior Golden Olympics

Senior athletes from William H. Rumsey Aquatic Center in D.C. compete in the 25th Annual Golden Olympics. A look into the competition as narrated by Mrs. Dottie Nielson.

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John will be 90 at the National Senior Games and is looking forward to a field without competition from his brother.

TO THOSE WHO STUDY AGING POPULATIONS, the Tatum brothers' remarkable strength and agility, or the idea of a 90-year-old competitive athlete, especially someone who has been active his entire life, syncs perfectly with a wide body of research.

With some exceptions (including prepubescent gymnasts), the human body is at its maximum potential in the 20s. "The amount of oxygen the lungs can provide the body is at its peak," says Gayle Appel Doll, a gerontology professor and director of Kansas State University's Center on Aging. "The heart's ability to pump blood to the body is at its highest level. Muscle mass is at its greatest," resulting in the body's highest strength levels.

Aging, which researchers define as the gradual loss of the body's ability to respond to the environment, results in a decline in all body systems. Muscle mass decreases, which means the body can't burn as many calories, which results in weight gain. This increases the likelihood of circulo-respiratory diseases.

But in 1990, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a groundbreaking study by researcher Maria Fiatarone Singh, detailing her work with nursing home residents in Boston. The study featured 10 men, average age 90, suffering from the kind of muscle weakness that results in decreased mobility, falls and fractures. The men were placed on an eight-week strength regimen, working on leg machines no more than three times a week for 15 minutes. By the end of the study, their average leg strength had improved by more than 174 percent. Two men who had walked with canes were able to walk without them, and their overall walking speed and balance improved by an average of 48 percent.

"What we normally see is people who age prematurely from disease, poor nutrition and inactivity. But even if you wait until you are 90, it's important to build muscle strength," Singh told the Boston Globe in an article about the study. "The muscles of older people are just as responsive to weight lifting as younger people's."

The study so impressed Doll that she decided to perform her own experiment in 1993. "So you're stronger, what does that mean?" she wondered. She and a small group of assistants asked 25 adults, ranging in ages from 65 to 83, what activities were most important for maintaining their independence. She tested them in several areas: their ability to walk, carry groceries, get up and down on the floor, get in and out of the bathtub, climb stairs and lift cans over their heads to put in a cupboard. She rated them on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest. The average score was 3 or 4, with activities requiring the most strength, such as getting up from the floor or out of the bathtub, being the most difficult.

She put the seniors in two groups; one doing weight training and one doing light calisthenics while sitting in a chair. After eight weeks, Doll says, both groups made significant, nearly equal improvements. Their scores got higher, and "five [seniors] improved enough that you were amazed." Not only were two women who had been unable to get out of the bathtub able to get out, "one fairly hopped out," Doll says. "We wanted to show that similar functional improvements could occur without the need for a heavy weight regime." Older people could improve their strength, "which means they didn't have to lose it in the first place," says Doll. They gained confidence, which helped them keep moving.

Doll's findings are also supported by a long-term study of 2,400 British twins, published in January in the Archives of Internal Medicine. The study examined telomeres, cell structures that carry genes and cap the ends of chromosomes. When cells divide, telomeres get shorter, until eventually they can't divide any further. Telomere length is a marker of aging, and researchers found that the more physically active twin had longer telomeres, resulting in cells that appeared up to six years younger than the more sedentary twin. The cells of a twin who exercised vigorously could appear nearly a decade younger.

"These data suggest that the act of exercising may actually protect the body against the aging process," Tim Spector, a London professor of genetic epidemiology who led the study, told Washington Post reporter Rob Stein in an article.

Research also shows that men and women age differently. "Men who survive beyond the age of 85 are more likely than women to be in better health and to have more remaining years of independent life," according to a 1994 study in the Journal of Aging and Human Development. No one really knows why, Doll says, but men seem to be more susceptible to acute disease and illness, and women to chronic problems. "I think the culprit here is arthritis -- women are more likely to suffer from it, and it is the condition most likely to lead to disability."

With decades of scientific evidence, it would seem an easy thing to convince older Americans to exercise, but according to Doll, the social stereotype of aging is one of the hardest barriers to overcome.