Exercise: Commitment to a Young Heart

LV compliance is greater in senior Master athletes than in sedentary seniors and, indeed, is more similar to that in young adults than in their age-matched but inactive peers (8). [...]high-level exercise may maintain a more youthful LV compliance, but exercise is much less effective when started later in life. Accurate assessment of LV passive properties requires invasive measurements with slow heart rates so that active processes of relaxation are largely completed. [...]the current study provides unique data for LV compliance that is not readily available nor directly comparable to the more widespread noninvasive indices used to assess diastolic function.