Hi everyone. We’re going to have a conversation today about aging athletes. To understand why athletes age differently than their more sedentary peers, we can look at a topic that I hear a lot in the minds of women that I work with in the studio: osteoporosis and osteopenia. I hope our conversation today inspires you to continue making daily movement a priority or to start a new habit of consistent exercise. It is never too late to learn new things, and it does not take exorbitant amounts of time once you put your mind to it. We will look at the physiology and the lifestyle choices of both athletes and non-athletes to see how they may be different in their outcomes. To inspire you, I have found two examples of cultural rebels—women who began competitive athletics in their fifth decade and redefined the physiological limitations that are part of the aging process for people between the ages of 55 and 85.

Ok, let’s take a look at what osteoporosis is and why the age group of 65–85 struggles with its effects.

“Osteoporosis is a silent disease in which bone mass and bone structure deteriorate over time, making bones more fragile and increasing the risk of fractures (Keen et al., 2025).” According to Keen et al. (2025), about half of a woman’s peak bone mass is accumulated during adolescence, with bone density continuing to increase until peak bone mass is reached in the third decade of life. Essentially, a healthy bone has a strong internal structure, similar to a dense honeycomb. In osteoporosis, the spaces inside the bone become larger and the supporting structure becomes thinner, making the bone weaker and more likely to break.

Listen to these statistics of osteoporosis today. According to the CDC (2021):

• Approximately 1 in 4 women age 65 and older in the United States has osteoporosis.
• Among all U.S. women age 50 and older, 18.8% have osteoporosis at the hip or spine.
• Prevalence increases sharply with age:
  • About 30% of women in their 70s have osteoporosis.
  • Roughly 50% of women aged 80 and older meet the criteria for osteoporosis.
  • By age 90, nearly two-thirds of women are estimated to have osteoporosis.

Wow. Ok, another consideration: fractures.

About 50% of women over age 50 will experience an osteoporosis-related fracture during their lifetime. Hip fractures are especially concerning; approximately 75% of all hip fractures occur in women.

Ok, so this is a big problem, not a little problem.

Let’s go back to why this happens physiologically. Research by Sözen, T., Özışık, L., & Başaran, N. Ç. (2017) explains that “Osteoporosis develops when the cells that remove bone become more active than the cells that build new bone. Over time, bones lose both density and internal structure, becoming weaker and more likely to fracture.” There are a variety of contributing factors to the development of osteoporosis, such as:

• Aging
• Declining estrogen after menopause
• Increased RANKL signaling (a biological process that stimulates the cells responsible for breaking down bone), which stimulates osteoclast activity
• Reduced osteoblast formation and function
• Calcium and vitamin D deficiency
• Reduced mechanical loading from inactivity (Sözen et al., 2017)

So there you have it: nutritional deficiencies and reduced mechanical loading from inactivity are what a person can do something about.

Consider a snapshot of feminine culture today. Many of our clients in their 70s mention to me that exercising or finding a way they liked to move was not promoted to them, much less accepted in their families or communities. So, if those women did not decide to make it personally important around their 50s or 60s, they are really struggling now with chronic diseases and are at risk of becoming a statistic. Picture the lifestyle choices of a female aged 65–85 who is not consistently exercising to assist metabolic, cardiovascular, muscular, or cognitive functioning. Silent diseases make for silent lifestyle shifts. This individual may have increased anxiety regarding unexpected physical challenges or falling; they may curtail excursions or life experiences, and the daily activities of living independently begin to exhaust their resources of physical and mental energy. Pain also becomes a steady companion due to compensations in their skeletal, muscular, and cognitive systems, which affects where their time and finances go. Pain management with doctors and medications starts to override their weekly schedule. For this individual, their relationships with life-affirming activities and contributions are affected greatly.

Now, take a peek at these two athletes as an example of differential outcomes in lifestyle and physiology.

Sister Madonna Buder. Sister Madonna Buder is known as the “Iron Nun.” She is a Catholic nun who began running as a way to integrate spiritual, mental, and physical well-being upon the suggestion of a priest. She began running at 48 as a daily contemplative practice. By age 75, she was the oldest woman ever to finish the Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaiʻi, and at 82, she set a standing world record for the oldest female Ironman finisher.

I find it interesting that she came to athletics at a key time in her midlife transition. She’s known for saying that the only failure is not to try. Another inspiring part of her journey is how she uses competition for personal perseverance—a faith-filled and lifelong expression of vitality. Sister Madonna Buder is still actively competing in her 90s. She is one of our heroes for making motion a daily habit at any age. (De Leon, V. 2007; Guinness World Records, n.d.)

A different example is gymnast Johanna Quaas. Johanna is a lifelong athlete, getting involved in gymnastics at age 10 and handball after World War II when gymnastics was restricted in East Germany, even winning a national championship in 1954. She returned to gymnastics as a coach and mentor, successfully supporting athletes at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. I love that she had a vocation to family life; she is married and raised three daughters, and during her midlife transition, she returned to competing at age 56. She excelled in senior categories and earned 11 consecutive German Senior Championships. Her routines on parallel bars and floor exercises became globally known after viral videos in 2012. Awarded the Nadia Comaneci Award in 2015, Quaas became the first senior athlete recognized by the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame. That same year, she entered the Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest competitive gymnast. In 2025, Johanna turned 100. Her lifestyle? Moderation, constant activity, a plant-based diet, along with eternal optimism. (Die Zeit, 2025)

As a teacher and researcher, I find her story inspiring due to the heavy demands her sport places on cognitive skills like precision, timing, and coordination, alongside muscular strength, full range of motion, and synergy throughout the whole body.

So, we learned about osteoporosis, its physiology, and the lifestyle that comes with it. We also looked at two athletes who included mechanical loading at a time when age-related changes began to occur. Why is their outcome different? What exactly are your weekly workouts doing for you physiologically to prevent bone loss? Why is mechanical loading the necessary intervention for preventing or managing osteoporosis?

Bones respond to stress by becoming stronger. When you place force on bone through activities such as walking, stair climbing, jumping, and resistance training, the bone bends slightly at the microscopic level. Specialized cells called osteocytes detect this strain and signal osteoblasts to build new bone while reducing the activity of osteoclasts that break bone down. Without this stimulus, the body interprets the skeleton as underused and gradually removes bone that is no longer “needed,” leading to lower bone mineral density and increased fracture risk. In older adults, we are not creating new peak bone mass, but regular mechanical loading helps maintain existing bone, slow age-related bone loss, improve muscle strength and balance, and reduce the likelihood of falls and fractures. In simple terms: bones adapt to the loads placed upon them—if you do not challenge them, they weaken over time. (Frost, 2003)

Now look at the lifestyle options for the athlete: vitality, independence, and a synergistic contribution to communities, families, and organizations—still serving and living as an example of truth.

So, what do you think?

In many people, there may still live an athlete—or an inner child that once loved to run, jump, spin, and play. People have their own authentic ways to express movement before life roles change that relationship. And reconnecting with that capacity for movement can support health at any age, just as we see in Sister Madonna Buder and Johanna Quaas.

Are you inspired to find a strength and conditioning program that provides safe but challenging loaded movement for bone and muscle health? I am.

I hope you join me on this journey. See you next time.

Lesley Davenport

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021). Osteoporosis or low bone mass in older adults: United States, 2017–2018 (NCHS Data Brief No. 405). https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db405.htm

De Leon, V. (2007, November 6). Spiritual strider. The Spokesman-Review. https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2007/nov/06/spiritual-strider/

Die Zeit. (2025, November 20). Weltweit älteste Turnerin Johanna Quaas wird 100 Jahre alt. https://www.zeit.de/news/2025-11/20/weltweit-aelteste-turnerin-johanna-quaas-wird-100-jahre-alt

Frost, H. M. (2003). Bone’s mechanostat: A 2003 update. The Anatomical Record Part A: Discoveries in Molecular, Cellular, and Evolutionary Biology, 275A(2), 1081–1101. https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.a.10119

Keen, M. U., Barnett, M. J., & Anastasopoulou, C. (2025). Osteoporosis in females. In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK559156/

Guinness World Records. (n.d.). Oldest person to complete an IRONMAN triathlon (female). https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/117441-oldest-person-to-complete-an-ironman-triathlon-female