Senior Athletea Gold Standard

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Senior Athletea Gold Standard

• 2001 National Senior Games- The Senior Olympics
• Demographics
• Injury
• Bone Mineral Density
• Athletic Performance
• 2005 National Senior Games- The Senior Olympics
• 7 studies
• www.SeniorSportsandFitness.com

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Injury

• 89 with 1 musculoskeletal injury since 50yo
• Foot and Ankle
• Knee ligament or muscle tears
• Shoulder tendonitis
• Lower back
• Mechanism 60 overuse 23 falls
• 54 competition/36 practice
• 2005 Injury data

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InjuryThe majority of 2001 Senior athletes
experienced at least one More than 50 had
experienced up to 5 injuries

• Performance decline attributed to increased rates
  of Orthopaedic Injury
• (Eskurza,02,Joyner, 93, Pollack, 97).
• Acute and overuse injury is 1 reason for
  stopping exercise.
• (Maharam, 99).

The Reason Attenuated mechanical properties and
lower healing capacity of aging muscle and tendon
(Maharam, 99).
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Osteoarthritis- 15men women

• INCREASED
• Age (p
• 9x hip/ hand OA (p
• 2x LBP, neck pain
• anemia, ulcers
• Steroid/ pain med use (p
• Knee / back surgery (p

Compared to NON-Arthritic peers
Greater incidence of injury ( 60 v- 49) since
50 yo (p 5
musculoskeletal injuries 3 x more likely to
report injuries about the knees (48 v- 18)
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Discussion Injury and OAKnee OA predisposed
Senior Athletes to higher injury rates.

• The Reasons Injury and knee OA
• Quad weakness (Hassan, 01)
• Altered proprioception (Bennell, 03)
• Abnormal neuromuscular response may weaken muscle
  response and decrease efficacy of protective
  muscular reflexes.
• Muscle fatigue alters proprioception (Miura, 04)
• 54 of Senior Athlete injuries occurred during
  competition
• Loss of proprioception in one knee is accompanied
  by decreased proprioception in the contra lateral
  knee (Koralewicz, 02)

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2001 Bone Density Screen
Women 40 HRT WB NWB
Men WB NWB
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Bone Mineral DensityEven the very old (75yo)
athletes have lower rates of Osteoporosis than
their non-athletic peers

• Low BMD is one of the major factors in Lost
  independence
• The impact of Osteoporosis can be attenuated with
  exercise
• Modest exercise, including brisk walking, reduces
  the rate of bone density loss among
  postmenopausal women (Preisinger, 95,96)
• Regular walking reduces the risk of Osteoporotic
  fractures by 30 (Cummings, 95).

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Physical Performance as a Biomarker of Aging
Typical graft of percent performance change with
age