How Often Should Masters Athletes Train? WOD Science Wants to Know (And Needs Your Help)
As we get older, our recovery seems to take longer, and some of us aren’t bouncing back from workouts as quickly as we used to.
Perhaps we used to grind five days a week at the gym, keeping the intensity high, but that just isn’t sustainable anymore. Or some of us used to rack up two-hour sessions, knocking out back-to-back metcons, but we just can’t quite hang in the same way.
For most athletes, and particularly masters athletes, recovery plays a major role in a training schedule. It can determine how hard and how often a person over 35 years old should exercise.
- “A lot of athletes reaching 40 years old experience reduced recovery, especially after hard sessions. The feeling that they can’t train as much as in the good old days increases the chances of getting injured as the relative load on the body becomes too high, ”Gommaar D’Hurst, founder of WOD Science and the senior scientist at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, told Morning Chalk Up.
He continued: “We do not know exactly if this is physiologically true.”
He went on to share with us that the acute inflammatory response after intense eccentric exercise is essentially the same in older and younger participants, citing a study in the National Library of Medicine.
- “There is a difference between what an athlete experiences and what is actually happening in the body,” D’Hulst said.
He believes that lifestyle factors, such as increased stress and less time to recover, play a larger role than age. This is particularly true for athletes over 50.
- “Therefore, manipulating frequency of training within the training week is an interesting question, as high session load requires a lot of recovery. But if you do that only three times a week, it might be better than doing more sessions at a lower relative load,” D’Hulst said.
What is the Ideal Training Schedule?
In a recent YouTube episode, D’Hurst announced that he is embarking on a nine-week study to uncover just that.
D’Hulst and his team want to know which factors enhance recovery and which path will lead to the best overall outcome for masters athletes.
The study will consist of two groups.
- Group A: These athletes will train at a high frequency with a low session load. This means training six times a week, with only 45-minute sessions. The workouts will combine strength, Metcons, and skill work.
- Group B: These athletes will train at a low frequency with a high session load. This means training three times a week, with sessions lasting 90 minutes. The workouts will still be a combination of strength, Metcons, and skill work.
How You Can Help
D’Hulst is recruiting participants for his study, which will run from February 2 to April 19.
- There is an initial testing week and another at the very end, with every workout in between programmed by D’Hulst’s team, except for the three Open workouts, which will be included in the schedule.
Participants will be randomly assigned to a group, and the goal is to complete 80% of the prescribed workouts.
- For their participation, they will receive 11 weeks of free programming, expert coaching along the way, access to a private Discord group for discussions, and 50% off a WOD Science training plan to continue after the study for those interested.
Volunteers must be at least 35 years old and have at least six months of CrossFit or HYROX training, as some movements will be slightly technical. (For those training at home, the equipment list can be found here.)
Registration is open to all volunteers.
