In most sports, athletic performance usually peaks before the age of 30. What about freediving though? Is it safe for someone to freedive over a certain age? Can a 50-year-old progress in the sport? Let's dive in.
Just like bone density decreases with age, we also lose muscle mass. The decline in skeletal muscle, a condition called sarcopenia, is a natural process that occurs in everyone over time. Sarcopenia is also known as muscle loss. It’s a common condition that affects at least 10% of adults who are over the age of 50 years and sometimes can occur at an age as young as 30 years. Although some of the causes of sarcopenia are a natural consequence of aging, others are preventable. Simply by exercising and keeping a healthy diet, Sarcopenia is preventable and even in some cases is curable.
Now how is oxygen consumption affected as we age (perhaps the most important factor to consider in aging freedivers)? Aging bodies don’t use oxygen as efficiently, this is a huge factor in particular in endurance sport, but what about freediving? VO2max is the number that indicates how much oxygen the body can use per unit of body weight, this declines by an average of around 10% per decade after the age of 30. The higher the VO2max, the more fit someone is. The good news is that an active person can cut that decline in half or more!
Much of the decline in VO2max is directly related to the decline in the maximal heart rate with age, which is unavoidable no matter how active someone is. The old formula, max HR = 220 – age, holds true for most people. However, in a sport that is said to be 90% mental and 10% physical, does the effect of O2 consumption decline, which is related to the physical structure, have the same effect on freedivers? The brain's oxygen demands are enormous; despite comprising only 2 percent of the body, our brains consume 20 percent of the body's oxygen supply. Scientists have long understood that there is a direct correlation between brain activity and blood flow.
Equally important, the aging athlete must pay more attention to, almost everything, including things that could be taken for granted only a few years earlier. The “no pain, no gain” mantra should not really apply to an aging athlete, neither to an aging freediver, or even freediver in that matter. Rest is almost as important as the training itself. In fact, rest should be an important part of the training. The aging athlete must know when to back off or rest or risk more serious injury. There are many considerations, including proper stretching before exercise. The aging athlete must be sure to get enough sleep. Sleep deficiency could lead to a depressed immune function and decreased mental acuity. It can also degrade athletic performance because the human growth hormone needed for recovery and adaptation to training is secreted in the body during sleep. The aging athletic freediver must pay close attention to diet, both in terms of quality and quantity of food. That includes being sure to consume the right types of nutrients, such as carbohydrates, protein, and electrolytes before, during, and after exercise. Supplements, particularly antioxidants should be considered to help reduce oxidative stress and free-radical damage. Excess sugar that can aggravate inflammation should be avoided. Reducing or eliminating alcohol consumption can be helpful as well. That’s not to say that every pleasure in life should be avoided altogether. As Woody Allen once said, “You can live to be a hundred if you give up all things that make you want to live to be a hundred.”
As per the University of Rochester studies, energy in the brain is generated almost solely from a form of metabolism that requires oxygen. However, neurons only maintain a small reserve of energy so these cells require a continuous supply of oxygen, especially when the cells are firing and communicating with their neighbors. In fact, the brain’s oxygen demands are enormous. Scientists have long understood that there is a direct correlation between brain activity and blood flow. Using imaging technologies, they have observed that when neurons start to fire there is an accompanying increase in blood flow to the area of the brain that is active. What has not been fully understood is how the blood circulation system in the brain “knows” that it needs to ramp up blood flow to respond to the increased demand. This is an important question because unlike other parts of the body, the brain resides in a confined space which restricts the amount of blood that is on hand at any given moment. Consequently, the circulatory system must be precisely tuned, constantly reacting to shifts in demand by diverting and increasing blood flow to where it is needed most. The system that brings blood to the brain could be compared to a road network that serves a city. While arteries are the main supply routes into the brain, blood ultimately delivers its payload of oxygen to its final destination via a vast web of smaller capillaries – or microvessels – which permeate brain tissue. While some scientists have theorized that the main arteries are responsible for responding to increases in demand – essentially by dilating in order to increase blood flow – Nedergaard and her colleagues speculated that the capillaries must play a central role because they are closer to the action and would be the first to detect the need for more oxygen. To test this theory the researchers created a miniature race track that mimicked the capillaries in the brain and placed red blood cells at the starting line on one end. When the oxygen level in the fluid outside the artificial capillaries was high, the cells took their time to cross to the other side. However, when the oxygen levels were lowered, the blood cells raced to the other end. They also conducted these experiments in the brains of animals with the same results. The experiments demonstrated that the blood cells can sense when the environment outside the capillaries is low in oxygen – which occurs when neurons take up more oxygen to generate energy – and respond by rushing to deliver more. They also observed that this response if very rapid, occurring less than a second after oxygen is pulled out of the surrounding tissue. This phenomenon is unique to the capillaries because of their size. The thin walls of the microvessels mean that the oxygen levels in adjacent brain tissue are mirrored within the capillaries, which can signal red blood cells to spring into action. The findings could have implications for a number of neurological disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease. It has been observed that blood flow in the brains of people with the disorder is impaired when compared to healthy brains. The difficulty in delivering the oxygen necessary for neuronal activity may help explain the cognitive difficulties that are one of the hallmarks of the disease.
What was not mentioned in these studies is the effect of C02 on the brain, and its amazing neuro-logical vasodilating effect. But if looking at only a lower amount of O2 it could be seen that the slight lowering of O2 in the blood supply while freediving may cause an increase of blood flow to the brain, which may actually be higher in aging freedivers. This could be the contributing factor of why so many people find and enjoy freediving later in life. This is just a personal observation.
Another thing to consider as an ‘aging’ freediver, are free radicals. Free radicals are one of the two main reasons we age and die as far as I know. But it could be said that if we compensate our activity with anti-oxidants, and try not to overtrain. The Ama Divers in Japan may not have a huge problem with free radicals, even though they are some of the most ‘aged’ freedivers in the world. Their diet of seafood rich in anti-oxidants may contribute to their lack of free radicals affecting their long diving sessions. The conclusion of the effects of free radicals on the aging freediver may be to simply compensate with a diet rich in anti-oxidants.
Overall aging in freediving does not have a huge negative knock-on effect due to an increased mental and physical awareness that may come with age. Also, it may be the case that the brain is benefitting from lower levels of O2 and higher levels of CO2 in the aging brain. With increased awareness and mental maturity, freediving has huge wellness and longevity effects on any human being deciding to start their journey in freediving later in life.
