I recently read that older women (and I’ll assume men as well) see a notable reduction in vascular compliance (the ability of vessels to distend quickly to accommodate greater blood flow). I certainly feel it in my warmups and wonder whether there are any workarounds or it’s just a matter of pushing through.
Is there any evidence that compliance is trainable (in an already fit individual)? Does it make sense to stay low-grade active through most of the day (rather than immobile), like keeping the pilot light on? What kind of stretching would be best for whole-body circulation? Any insights gratefully received, thanks.
OK… I’m not in medical field, but you may be mixing a few things up. I don’t think and muscle stretches will significantly improve vascular performance. However, what would help is trigger point (rolling) and regular massages. The best 1 hour and $60-100 spent per week, would be on a regular massage from a GOOD therapist trained in sports related massage techniques.
Again, I’m not a doctor, but I would think that if you arteries were creating a flow restriction, what you’d see is that your heart rate would increase a little more rapidly to compensate. So blood velocity has to increase and the heart works a little harder. This could be one of the reasons why a persons VO2max drops with age.
Another good idea is is to have a good strength training program.
Otherwise I’d suggest making sure there’s still some polarity in your workouts, especially swimming and cycling. Don’t just go long and slow. Get that heart rate elevated for short periods of time, then rest and repeat.
As for increasing low level activity throughout the day. I think this would simply reduce your recovery capacity and compromise the quality of you workouts. When your recovering, you want to recover, when you training you want to be able to go hard. A mail carrier with a walking route, may not be able to train as much or as hard as a person with a desk job as they recovery is compromised due to their job.