The masters triathlete: Protein intake, muscle protein synthesis response and recovery from muscle-damaging exercise

Masters athletes are one of the most rapidly growing cohorts of athletes worldwide, particularly in endurance sport such as triathlon. Given the multidisciplinary nature of their sport, triathletes often train more than once a day; adequate recovery between training sessions is therefore important for maintaining training quality. Limited research evidence suggests that masters athletes recover at similar rates to younger athletes following fatiguing exercise such as cycling. However, following exercise that results in a degree of muscle damage, such as running, masters athletes appear to experience slower rates of muscle recovery compared to younger, similarly-trained athletes. This mode-dependant difference in recovery suggests an impairment to the repair and remodelling mechanisms within skeletal muscle of masters athletes.