Can You Beat Olga?

at 4:41 PM

The Flying Nonagenarian

Let me tell you about this incredible 91 year old athlete who is breaking all the masters track and field records.  You say impossible?  Not at all;  she may be one of the rare few with all the right genes but you too can grow old in a healthy way (not on oxygen, and not stooped down) if you take the right steps now.  Here is her story.

Olga Kotelko grew up as one of 11 children on a farm in Ukraine.  In the mornings, after the chickens were fed, the cow were milked and the pigs slopped, the kids would trudge two miles to school.  As an adult she taught grade school and raised two daughters.  After all the fires of raising a family were put out, she then tended to the fire that had been burning in her for a very long time; playing sports.  In 1984 she picked up softball again after retiring from teaching.  She was slow but competitive and one day a teammate suggested that she may enjoy track and field (she was 77 at the time).

She hooked up with a coach who taught her the basics and found a trainer, a strict Hungarian woman who enjoyed pushing Olga as much as Olga was keen to be pushed.  Several days during the  week Olga would train hard at the gym for up to 3 hours at a time.She would do bench presses, squats, planks and other difficult exercises.  Take a look at these numbers:  At the World Masters Games in Sydney, in the 100 meters (23.95 seconds), she was faster than some of the finalists in the 80-to-84 year category- two age groups down from her.  She also holds two world records in javelin for women over 85.  She also hold records in the long jump.  She routinely does interval training on the track.

Scientifically we don't have a lot of data for people who are elderly and also very fit.  This segment of populations-85 and older- are being studied for what they eat, their general health, maybe their social network but very few studies have focused on the long term effects of exercise on the elderly population.  To explain how age affects fitness let's talk a little science...

Mitochondria (the energy factories of our bodies- and they are present in every cell in the body) are hit hard in young people who have neuromuscular diseases such as ALS.  Because muscle cells require a lot of energy they are highly affected when the number of mitochondria go down in these diseases.  Some researchers see aging as a type of mitochondrial disease (because the muscle that have these little energy factories get weaker with age).  There is some evidence that exercise is a potent tool which slows the symptoms of patients with these types of diseases.  If that is true then maybe exercise can be a fountain of youth.

OK a little more science again- but this is so incredibly interesting and really drives the point that if we continue exercising into old age we will reap the benefits.

Exactly how exercise affects older people is kind of complicated.  The emerging proposition is what if intense training rejuvenates and regenerates our bodies at the cellular level?  I am not talking about the elderly taking a water aerobics classes or a leisurely walk.  This potential rejuvenation requires INTENSE exercise (bike, running, stairmaster and definitely weight training).  There is emerging evidence that this type of exercise may stimulate/maintain the telomerases- wait don't skip- it's really easy to explain- Telomerases are enzymes that keep these caps on the ends of chromosomes that keep the genetic information intact when cells divide.  Without them, the chromosomes (the genetic material) keep getting shorter and shorter with each cell division.  And this causes the cells to eventually die.  This may partly explain why older athletes aren't just cardiovascularly fit but also free of age-related illnesses.  Intense exercise does damage the muscles and ligaments and tendons but it also stimulates the production of antioxidants.  Resistance exercise (weight training) seems to also activate a muscle stem cell called a satellite cell. Stem cells are cells that can become any kind of cell that the body needs at the time.  So as a result of weight training the body is getting all these brand new cells that have more mitochondria (energy factories).

We all understand that most of us aren't Olga however this story which was published in the New York Times Magazine (11-28-10) really tells us that there is accumulating evidence that exercise is not only good for us now but its benefits are going to last into old age.  IF we continue to exercise intensely these benefits will accumulate and may protect us from age-related illnesses.  The idea here is to continue our intense exercise as we get older.