ACSM 2024

i joined the American College of Sports Medicine in 2014. Studied to be a personal trainer with an emphasis on run coaching.  My first regional meeting was in 2014 attended by about 1,000 students, researchers, and practitioners from around New England.  Then, in 2016 I attended the ACSM annual meeting in Boston, and in 2018 in Minneapolis.  Last week, I attended the conference again held in Boston.  These four-day meetings attract about 6,000 people from around the world. It serves as a reminder of how much is happening in the field of sport, fitness, and health.  Among the array of topics covered there is always a subset related to how aging affects runners and other athletes. 

These annual meetings are collaborative.  Very little one-upmanship is apparent, with presenters sharing current learnings and giving credit to those who have helped them.  It’s not that ego doesn’t exist in this crowd.  Many are, after all, world renown experts.  Yet, most see it as an opportunity to learn something new and make valuable connections. 

I also got some good feedback from the Human Kinetics rep on my SDRE series.  She spent time looking at my draft book and we discussed how this probably is best presented in YouTube format, which was the original idea.  She also thought a podcast with senior runners done well could be well received. For me, this was probably the most important takeaway from the conference.  In a way, it’s back to Square 1, but this development is really part of a continuum.

Here are a few snippets I heard at the conference:

• Trail running has grown 231% in the past 10 years and participants are getting older with the average age now 39.5 years old.
• High Intensity Functional Training (HIFT) is different from HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), which is largely focused on improving cardiovascular capacity.  HIFT combines cardiorespiratory and strength training, and as such is considered “concurrent training.”
• In endurance athletes, Total Energy Expenditure, or TEE, is not simply adding the caloric cost of exercise to baseline needs.  Rather, highly trained individuals tend to be more metabolically efficient, thus not needing as much incremental caloric intake as expected.
• Running, per se, has minimal effect on bone density.  Running does help to build and maintain muscle, but bone density requires something more, such as weight training, plyometrics, or single leg hopping.
• Perhaps not surprising, data on senior runners is limited, and very few seniors are involved in this research.  I observed this when I first entered this field and it continues to be so. This suggests there is a need for something like Senior Distance Running Essentials.
• A lot was presented about developments in wearable technology.  Studies show high variability in accuracy of internal movements, though that continues to improve.  Rather GPS tracking, using external satellites, is more reliable. 
• The medical director of the Boston Marathon indicated there is a team of 18,000 professionals supporting the runners. A conundrum they face is discerning who needs help.  Wearables are likely to help fill this gap.  They have been tested in races with up to 500 runners monitoring vital signs during races using color coded monitors indicating a runner is in trouble before they come into sight of medical staff.  Sensors may be embedded in clothing in the near future for this purpose.

I was also glad Jon Waldron, fellow senior runner and reviewer of SDRE, was able to connect with Human Kinetics and get some good feedback on a pending book he is writing related to coaching high school students.  I truly believe such a book, drawing from Jon’s own experience over 24 years of coaching, has great potential to touch many lives.  

Next year the conference is in Atlanta.  Not as close as Boston, but a direct flight from Burlington takes less time than driving to Boston. A lot can happen between now and then.   But it’s on my calendar!