Older age is accompanied by a shift in the ventilatory response to exercise, characterized by a mechanically constrained, frequency-dominant breathing pattern and diminished ventilatory efficiency, associated with increases in ventilatory irregularity that become most apparent after the sixth decade.
Older age was associated with progressive declines in peak oxygen uptake, minute ventilation, breathing frequency, and tidal volume during exhaustive exercise.
Ventilatory efficiency declined across the age span, evidenced by an increased VE/VCO2 nadir in older adults.
Older adults demonstrated a tachypneic (rapid, shallow) breathing pattern during exercise, with a higher breathing frequency to minute ventilation ratio.
Contrary to the authors' hypothesis, ventilatory irregularity (Sample Entropy) remained stable through early adulthood but increased significantly after the sixth decade.
The ventilatory response pattern to exercise shifts with aging toward a mechanically constrained, frequency-dominant strategy with diminished efficiency.
This research suggests that how we breathe during exercise changes substantially as we age, and these changes become especially pronounced after age 60. Using data from 526 healthy adults aged 20 to 91, the researchers found that older adults breathe in a fundamentally different way during strenuous exercise: they take faster but shallower breaths (a pattern called tachypnea) rather than deeper, slower breaths. They also become less efficient at getting rid of carbon dioxide during exercise, meaning their lungs have to work harder to achieve the same level of gas exchange compared to younger adults. The study also examined how irregular or 'chaotic' breathing patterns become with age, using a mathematical measure called Sample Entropy. Interestingly, breathing patterns were fairly stable and regular up through middle age, but became noticeably more irregular after the sixth decade of life. This increased irregularity, combined with the shallow rapid breathing and reduced efficiency, paints a picture of a respiratory system that is more constrained and less adaptable during exercise in older adults. These findings matter because they help explain why older people so often report feeling short of breath during physical activity, even when they appear otherwise healthy. This research suggests that the breathing changes seen with aging are not just about lung capacity declining, but also involve shifts in the mechanics and coordination of breathing during exercise. The authors call for further research to directly link these ventilatory patterns to the sensation of breathlessness, which could ultimately inform exercise recommendations and treatments aimed at improving quality of life in older adults.
Williams Z, Cenerini G, Schwendinger F, Knaier R, Wagner J, Hull J, et al.. (2026). The ventilatory response pattern to exercise across the age-span in healthy adults.. Physiological reports. https://doi.org/10.14814/phy2.71065