On the Cover of the Rolling Stone

A Discussion about "Swimming Age"
by Cheryl Wagner

Issue after issue, I see people in their 40’s and 50’s on the cover of "Swim Magazine" who can do 21 second 50s and I wonder, "What are they eating?!!" A recent article in Running Times (September 2002, "What’s Your Running Age?") by Pete Pfitzinger, may help explain swimming age or how your performance reflects all of the those late nights, parties, pizzas, and lattes, just as much as your genes, training, and coaching.

Your "Physical" Age
Genes and lifestyle are the primary determinants in how you age. Your genes regulate a host of processes that affect how well you hold back the hands of time. Some people’s bodies make more of the good things (human growth hormone, testosterone, estrogen and collagen) longer than others. This helps to explain why some classmates at your reunions are overweight, hard of hearing and completely gray while others look like they haven’t aged at all.

Past Sins
Your lifestyle, especially if you’re feeling the cumulative effects of overindulging in alcohol, sugar, caffeine, fast foods and late nights, can also have a large impact on how you age. It’s like putting bad gasoline in a Ferrari; after a while the inferior "fuel" results in a performance degradation.

Your Injury History
But your age, lifestyle and genes don’t tell the whole story. There’s also your swimming "history". Every yard you swim adds interest to your aerobic "bank account" by increasing fitness, the number of capillaries, aerobic enzymes, mitochondria and a multitude of other positive physical changes. However, every yard or mile also means more injuries and scar tissue. And every injury leaves a reminder – a muscle that tightens up more quickly, a ligament that’s stretched, or a knee that goes out a little too easily. All of these factors begin to affect how much you can train and how well you race.

So the next time you see one of the smiling super-fast faces on the cover of Swim Magazine, remember that perhaps they just lucked out in the "genetic, lifestyle, training, and injury" lottery. But don’t forget: just by swimming Masters you’re probably in the top 3-5 percentile of all US adults in terms of fitness--and that’s not so bad