Why We Slow Down and What To Do About It

It’s insidious.

Your speed slowly sneaks away from you a little bit each day, each month, each year until, if you’re not diligent about changing it, you might find yourself shuffling to and from the kitchen.

It’s true.

We slow down as we age.

But why?

Is it possible to maintain your speed as you age?

No. But it is possible to lose a lot less.

We slow down for a couple of reasons.

First, from the age of 25, we lose a little lean muscle mass each year and by age 70, the total loss will be close to 30% with an associated 40% loss of strength.  The loss of strength is directly tied to the loss of speed. You can’t move fast without being strong.

Second, with the absence of training and inadequate fuel, two key hormone levels drop: testosterone and growth hormone. And yes, women need testosterone (although it’s a very small amount, it’s still important). Both of these hormones help you recover from taxing physical work and facilitate muscle strength and growth( oh, and if you want to keep younger looking skin, well, growth hormone helps you). 

The loss of strength comes from atrophy of a specific type of muscle fiber – fast twitch. And things like walking, slow runs, cycling, swimming don’t do much to awaken the sleepy fast twitch. You have to use fast movements and some degree of load.

Too much load and you can get hurt as you try to push, pull, squat, or lift with speed.

Too little load and nothing really changes.

How to Increase Your Speed

One of the first things to do is test yourself. Find out your strengths and weaknesses and get your overall score into the GREEN zone before you start training for speed. You need a solid foundation first. I was lecturing at a conference a few years ago about this topic and afterward one of the attendees came up to me and said, “You know, this reminds me of Star Trek. It’s like trying to go to warp speed with crap in your engines.” Well said. 

Once you’re in the Green Zone, add a Power Element into your training schedule. These Elements are designed to work speed but with lower loads so your risk of injury is much less (and there’s always risk of injury with any form of training or exercise – it’s all controlled trauma). Here’s an example of a drill from the Power Element, Silver (password is fusiontribe):

Then, add a round of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) but instead of a bike, elliptical, or other device, try sprinting. Now, this has to be done slowly. The impact loads of sprinting are high and if you’re not used to it, well, your body will likely let you know.

• Use 30 seconds for the sprint and 90 seconds for an easy recovery (walk back to the starting point).
• Do no more than 8 rounds.
• Priming first.
• Round 1 – use about 40% effort
• Round 2 – 50% effort
• Round 3 – 50% effort
• Round 4 – 60% effort
• Round 5 – 60% effort
• Round 6 – 70% effort
• Round 7 – 70% effort
• Round 8 – 80% effort
• Stay with this pattern for 5 sessions then you can gradually increase the effort across the rounds)

If sprinting seems like too big of change for you, you can also use speed walking. In fact, the calorie cost of walking really fast is actually higher than a slow run. 

The benefit of speed / interval training is significant. After just one round of the above sprinting intervals, you will boost growth hormone by over 400% and that increase can last up to two hours.¹

Talk about return on investment.

So why don’t more people do this? Why do you see lines and lines of “aerobic” equipment in gyms instead of sprint lanes?

People don’t know the difference.

Most people get their “fitness” information from magazines, friends, or maybe some Internet sites. And most of those sources will suggest aerobic training to lose fat, improve cardiorespiratory function, etc. And that information is true but short sighted. 

So, they drink the sand. 

We’re going to slow down at least some as we age but you can make significant improvements in yourself if you really want to. And it doesn’t take a lot of time either (for example, a typical Fusion training week will cost you less then four hours of time – total).

Let’s speed up a little? What do you say?

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Photo by: Kitti.Jakobovits

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1. Stokes, K. A., M. E. Nevill, et al. (2002). “The time course of the human growth hormone response to a 6 s and a 30 s cycle ergometer sprint.” J Sports Sci 20(6): 487-94. [↩]