CHARACTERISTICS OF BLOOD COMPOSITION PERTAINING TO MIDDLE AND OLD AGE RUNNERS

Preliminary studies on the blood composition were carried out with 40- to 82-year-old runners when they were at rest. 790 male subjects who had kept the routine training of running over a year were examined. And the results were compared those with the corresponding control groups who had no particular routine training. The results were as follows: 1. Runners' values for Red blood cell count and Hematocrit were decreased with age. 2. Runners' values for Red blood cell count, Hemoglobin and Hematocrit were approximately 10%, 9% and 4% lower than those of the corresponding control groups of almost all age groups. On the other hand runners' values for MCH (Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin) were approximately 8% higher than the control group values for all age groups. 3. Runners' values for reticulocyte count and osmotic fragility of the blood were within normal range. 4. Comparison between runners of 10 km group and 25 km group of blood composition was made; the age group of forties of 25 km group of both Red blood cell count and Hematocrit were significantly lower than the corresponding 10 km group. 5. Dailly training programs of 25 km runners were significantly longer than those of 10 km runners for all age groups.