1. mTOR and Muscle Protein Synthesis:
   • mTOR is a central regulator of protein synthesis and cell growth. When mTOR is activated, it promotes protein synthesis and inhibits autophagy.
   • In the context of muscle, activation of mTOR is associated with muscle protein synthesis, leading to muscle growth (hypertrophy).
2. AMPK and Autophagy:
   • AMPK, on the other hand, is activated in response to cellular energy depletion. It acts as an energy sensor and, when activated, stimulates processes that generate ATP (cellular energy).
   • AMPK activation is often associated with the induction of autophagy, which can be seen as a catabolic process breaking down cellular components to generate energy.
3. Exercise and the Balance Between Anabolism and Catabolism:
   • Exercise, especially resistance training, can activate both mTOR (anabolic) and AMPK (catabolic) pathways to varying degrees. The balance between these pathways is dynamic and depends on factors such as exercise intensity, duration, and type.
   • The acute activation of autophagy during and after exercise may contribute to the removal of damaged cellular components.
4. Impact on Muscle Mass:
   • Chronic, excessive activation of autophagy and suppression of mTOR might contribute to muscle protein breakdown and potentially impact muscle mass negatively. This is particularly relevant if the catabolic processes (AMPK-mediated) dominate over the anabolic processes (mTOR-mediated) for an extended period.

In summary, while both mTOR and AMPK pathways are involved in the regulation of autophagy and muscle protein synthesis, the overall impact on muscle mass depends on the balance between anabolic and catabolic processes. Acute activation of autophagy during exercise is a normal and necessary process for cellular maintenance, but long-term imbalance may have negative effects on muscle mass. It’s essential to consider the context and balance between anabolism and catabolism for a comprehensive understanding of the effects of these pathways on muscle. Individual factors, including the type and intensity of exercise, nutrition, and overall health, also play significant roles in this complex interplay.

Let’s talk about exercise vs. fasting when it comes to triggering autophagy.

Autophagy is a condition. It’s the recycling of old worn-out cell parts. It’s a condition that’s very good for the body.

Autophagy is all about anti-aging. When we age, we have a deficiency of autophagy. Autophagy is also very deficient in chronic disease states. So, it’s very important to know how to trigger autophagy.

The suppression of glucose with the increase of ketones is what triggers autophagy. This is why fasting is probably the most potent thing to trigger autophagy.

But, exercise can also trigger autophagy. Exercise forces the body to use up glucose, and it helps increase insulin sensitivity. When you exercise, you lower insulin. When insulin becomes too high, it can knock you out of autophagy. It can be very beneficial to exercise while fasting because you have a compounding effect.

The autophagy that’s created when you exercise will only last until the next time you eat. Compared to if you fast for 48 hours, you’re getting a massive amount of autophagy.

When it comes to exercise, the amount of autophagy you’re going to get is going to be related to the intensity and the volume of exercise you do. A strong, resistant type workout with high intensity and a good amount of volume can give you more autophagy. But, a low-intense endurance type workout while fasting can enhance the autophagy you’re getting from fasting.

https://www.drberg.com/blog/autophagy-exercise-vs-fasting

Is intermittent fasting necessary if you are fit and active?

Robb Wolf has talked about this concept for sometime now…

Consider this example: If your one and only purpose is to live as long as possible, there will be implications from the IF information that will make for some compelling arguments.

Optimizing lifespan (in the IF scheme this seems to be feast one day, fast one day) will likely by extension bring Health (an acute measure of longevity) near optimization, but Performance may suffer.

Eating one day and fasting one day may not yield elite athleticism. One may be able to be quite good, but perhaps not elite and this is the similarity of altering the pressure/temperature conditions to shift the triple point to a different emphasis of solid, liquid or gas. I think it is obvious that some may desire to optimize performance and the pursuit of performance may necessitate levels of activity (wrestler Dan Gable does not get around so well on his very worn knees) and food consumption that are not conducive to longevity.

Some degree of IF should still aid performance, but it may be different in duration and frequency than the person looking for maximum longevity.

Please just keep in mind that we try to present material that is germane to as broad an audience as possible and in such a way that people can make decisions about how best to implement a given technology to their betterment. It is not for me or anyone else to put forth dictates as to how (or why) to live or what the goals of the individual should be.

…my goal is to find an optimized nutritional protocol for Performance, Health and Longevity.

A key feature of both optimum performance and “effective” aging is a reserve of muscle mass. The IF protocol, as mentioned previously, does not leave the organism in an emaciated state.

Simple energy balance seems to account for most of this, as the IF animals consume on average the same amount as the ad-libitum controls and consequently do not lose weight.

Add to this the finding that IF improves body composition and that IF with a low carbohydrate diet improves it even further.

We also have an increase in IGF and neuroendocrine response to exercise.8. All of this bodes well for muscle mass and performance.

https://www.performancemenu.com/article/20/Intermittent-Fasting/

The stronger you are, ideally the harder it will be to kill you.

The stronger you are the faster you will get yourself out of a hospital bed should you ever find yourself there.

The stronger you are the less likely you will hit that medic alert button because you have fallen and cannot get up.

Strength and Conditioning in the Aging Athlete

Strength and Power:

Rippetoe said it best, stronger people are harder to kill, and more useful in general. Whichever program you follow or gym that you choose to go to, there should be some type of periodized strength and power program built in. While strength gains may be harder to come by, continuing to build strength as well as maintaining strength is extremely important. The stronger you are, ideally the harder it will be to kill you. The stronger you are the faster you will get yourself out of a hospital bed should you ever find yourself there. The stronger you are the less likely you will hit that medic alert button because you have fallen and cannot get up.

While one should focus on building strength, constantly stressing the body with absolute strength tests may not be necessary and ill advised. The ability of the body to handle max effort lifts week in and week out may be extremely stressful, and recovery could be difficult depending on life variables. It is important to make sure the volume and intensity of any strength program is measured appropriately by someone who understands you, your goals, and your life situation. Undulating periodized strength programs I feel have hit the mark in this regard for the aging athlete. Ashman Strength Systems Protocol or the Cube Method are variations of a cyclical undulating periodized system where the volume of maximal efforts between lifts is considered.

 

Hypertrophy:

Along with general strength there should be some focus on building up lean muscle mass. The more lean muscle mass you have the more metabolically active tissue you have, ideally the less fat you have, and the hardier you are. You lose muscle when you age, when you are diseased (older you get more likely), and if you are inactive (Get old, get diseased, becoming inactive for a period of time is more likely). The more lean muscle you carry at 40 means the more you will carry when you are 50 and 60 given you focus on staying active and eating a nutrient dense diet. The more muscle mass you have at 60, the better the outcome if you are laid up in a hospital bed for a week or two. Strength work alone will give some hypertrophy, but exercises and/or rep ranges to encourage hypertrophy should be included. In many strength and conditioning programs, including the two I previously mentioned above, hypertrophy ranges are found in the accessory work. With CrossFit, many of the metabolic conditioning work, aka WODs, have higher rep ranges which skirt the hypertrophy range and could be useful in this regard, in conjunction with a strength program.

Kinesthetic Awareness:

While it may not apply yet to a 40 year old athlete, balance is something one loses as they age. The stronger and more powerful you are the more it helps in regard to balance, however, more awareness of our bodies as they travel through time and space is important. It is important to maintain your body’s awareness of the space around it through training. This has a huge carryover in my mind, and the practice of balancing should be incorporated into all training programs for older athletes. Along with the practice of balancing, the incorporation of static holds is something which also should be utilized, as it engages and strengthens the stabilizing muscles of joints, as well as strengthens the connective tissue in our joints. The practice of balancing while walking (on a beam? a fallen tree?), being upside down, getting up from the floor using our hands as well as not using our hands, holding ourselves in a plank, etc, all has tremendous potential to decrease injury, as well as increase longevity in any training program.

 

Mobility:

Not every joint should be mobile. Some joints help to maintain stability, others need to be mobile through a specific range of motion. Mobilization of the joints which are meant to be mobile through their full ranges of motion is important as it helps prevent injury, from which recovery from takes longer the older you are (Connective tissue injuries as they are heal very slowly). Making sure that the joints which are supposed to maintain stability do so, also is important to prevent injury, and static holds are useful for this. Another key piece to the mobility/stability puzzle in my opinion is making sure there are no muscle imbalances between left and right side. Incorporating unilateral exercises into any training program to address and prevent muscle imbalance is also an important piece of the puzzle. I particularly like kettlebell specific exercises like the turkish get up, kb windmills, single leg deadlifts to work on preventing/fixing left/right muscle imbalances. Many of these exercises are great to incorporate into a warm up regimen or as accessory work.

 

Aerobic capacity:

Basic aerobic capacity decreases 1% every year after 25. By being physically active you help to slow the age related declines in VO2 max. There are many ways that aerobic capacity can be tackled, and its good to mix up the energy systems being worked. There has been a general trend to focus on interval training at the expense of longer aerobic training, however, I feel it is important to include all modalities of training, and not just focus on glycolytic training for optimal health and longevity. Going for a longer walk, swim, bike ride, etc at an easier pace for a longer period of time (over 30 minutes) is not detrimental but helpful in obtaining optimal health and aerobic capacity, just as incorporating some sprints or HIIT into your training regimen is equally important.

The need for a distinctive training program for older athletes is that these athletes have several variables which younger athletes in their prime do not necessarily need to worry about, or the effects of these variables is in a different light. The first of these variables is physiological. Hormonally, the older one is the more different their natural hormone profiles are from their prime. Hormonal levels are greatly involved with the ability to handle training/exercise as a good stress, and recover from those sessions. While recovery is an important aspect of any training program, regardless of ones age, however, in a Master’s level, it may be even more so. Male hormone (Vitamin T) levels start dropping off after age 30 at a rate of ~1% a year. This drop off, combined with already below normal testosterone levels in the general US population to begin with could be problematic for older male athletes. Females over 35 also have changing hormone levels which could affect their recovery as well.

Another variable as one ages is the number of potential stressors actually changes as you age. Older athletes typically have or are involved in career jobs, have a set number of bills, ie mortgage, car payments, school bills, due each month, marriage concerns, children and concerns revolving around the kids, etc. The more stressors, the greater the effects of these stressors on the ability to handle training as well as the ability to recover. The more stress, the greater effect on hormones, which potentially compounds the effects of age on hormone levels.

Enhancing Longevity and sustainability in training

1. Sleep: First and foremost, you want to have more optimal hormone levels, recover faster, achieve optimal health, live longer, etc, you need to sleep uninterrupted for 7-8 hours.
2. Focus on eating a Nutrient Dense Diet of non-processed foods. Perfect place to start is with a Paleo diet, and then use that as a template.
3. Consumption of enough calories to sustain training levels along with consumption of enough individual macronutrients to sustain the type of training/exercise you are performing (This is an individualized thing based on type of training, fitness goals, etc)
4. Adaptability! Listen to your body. If you are feeling tired, beat up, etc, take it easy. If you are feeling full of piss and vinegar, get after it. Be able to adapt your training program (individually or through a coach) from day to day based on how you are feeling. A potentially more accurate way to listen to your body with what is going on physiologically with you is through monitoring your Heart Rate Variability (HRV). You need a heart rate monitor which can easily hook up to an app on your smartphone, such as Joel Jamison’s BioForce HRV or iThlete. If your HRV score is Red, and you have a killer session planned, adjustment of your training program for that day is needed. Utilization of a personal coach, whether remotely or in person, is extremely useful in this regard.
5. Supplement wisely. This also is highly individualized based on training, goals, diet, etc.

 

Test and stop guessing how YOU should fuel and train to perform YOUR best in life today as well as for your FUTURE SELF!

Contact Coach Debbie Potts here for a discovery call