Early Women’s Health Research on Endurance Exercise Training and Cardiovascular Aging at the University of Colorado Boulder Using the Masters Athlete Model

max) almost twice that of non-exercising postmenopausal women, in part due to a larger total blood volume. The masters runners showed stable body mass with age/menopause and exhibited much smaller age-related differences in total body fatness and abdominal adiposity than non-exercising women, related in part to preserved resting metabolic rate. The masters runners maintained a healthier overall systolic blood pressure profile and showed smaller differences in large elastic artery (aorta and carotid arteries) stiffness with age/menopause compared with non-exercising women. In contrast to non-exercising women, circulating coagulation and fibrinolytic activity was well-preserved with age/menopause in the masters runners. Masters runners also maintained greater heart rate variability, more favorable regulation of plasma glucose and insulin, and a superior plasma lipid-lipoprotein profile compared with non-exercising postmenopausal women. In contrast to males, female masters athletes did not demonstrate greater vascular endothelial function than their non-exercising peers. Collectively, this work represented the first systematic research conducted on the benefits of endurance exercise training on optimal cardiovascular function and health with age/menopause in women using the masters athlete model.