Losing fitness when you stop working out, also called detraining or deconditioning, is one of the key principles of conditioning. Most of us need to stop exercising on occasion for any number of reasons. Illness, injury, holidays, work, travel, and social commitments often interfere with training routines.
When this happens, we will often see a decline in our level of conditioning. Deconditioning in fit athletes generally does not appear to happen as quickly or drastically as in beginning exercisers. In fact, one recent study looked at well-conditioned adolescent athletes who had been training regularly for a year. After three weeks of detraining, researchers found that the athletes' muscle strength and sport performance was not affected.
The outcome tends to be much different for new exercisers. A study followed new exercisers as they began a training program and then stopped the exercise. Researchers had sedentary individuals start a bicycle fitness program for two months.
During those eight weeks, the exercisers made dramatic cardiovascular improvements and boosted their aerobic capacity substantially. At eight weeks, they quit exercising for the next two months. They were tested again and were found to have lost all of their aerobic gains and returned to their original fitness levels.
Other research is looking at the effects of decreasing training level, rather than completely stopping all exercise. The results are more encouraging for athletes who need to reduce training due to time constraints, illness, or injury.
A study followed sedentary men through three months of strength training, three times a week. They then cut back to one session per week. They found that these men maintained nearly all the strength gains they developed in the first three months. More: 7 Tips for Taking Time Off. First, it's important to understand there are two "types" of fitness: your aerobic fitness—in other words, your endurance —and your orthopedic or structural fitness—the ability of your muscles, bones, tendons and ligaments to withstand the impact of running.
Thankfully, it takes a little while to lose your hard-earned endurance. For most runners, it takes about seven to 14 days for your aerobic fitness to start declining. And what you lose initially is mostly the gains that you've made in the last several months of training.
What exactly does that mean? If you're a lifelong runner, you'll retain much of your aerobic fitness for several months. So don't worry: You won't revert to a couch potato if you need to take a few weeks off due to an injury like IT Band Syndrome. Here's even better news: The better shape you're in, the more fitness you'll hold onto when you're not running.
If you run consistently and have a higher level of fitness than a beginner, you don't have to worry about losing your gains as much as if you were just starting out. The best use of this information is to run as consistently as possible. Running is truly a long-term endeavor—a lifestyle rather than simply a sport—and your aerobic fitness is something you hold onto for many months.
Structural fitness is critical for injury prevention. It helps you absorb the impact of running without suffering an overuse injury. A study documenting the impact of decreased resistance training among female rowers actually observed strength gains in some lifts, and no loss in others. As you age, detraining occurs faster. One study found that adults over 65 lost nearly twice as much strength as adults aged These changes took effect between weeks 12 and 31 of detraining.
Generally speaking, no significant differences have been found between males and females. How quickly you lose fitness is also impacted by how fit you were to begin with — kind of. You build a base over time, and it contributes to your overall fitness level.
Studies consistently find that those individuals who have been training for longer will retain more of their fitness gains than those who have only been following an exercise regimen for a few weeks. Think of it like a giant pile of rocks. When you exercise and gain fitness, you add rocks to the pile. When you detrain, you take them away. Finally, strange as it may initially seem, the reason you take time off can impact the rate of detraining you experience.
This is ascribed to the additional stress your body is under while fighting illness, coupled with a potential inability to eat or drink as much as you need to. Additionally, you have the benefit of day-to-day activity as opposed to being stuck in bed. You also have the chance cross-train or switch up your routine, which leads directly into the next section…how to minimize detraining and protect those hard-earned gains.
If you have the choice between doing nothing and doing something less involved than your normal routine, do something less involved. Swimming is a fantastic low impact alternative for aerobics, and rowing can be as well.
Most strength programs are customizable enough to avoid a body part and still train regular. It may well be something you've heard a million times before. But when it comes to your fitness, it's well worth remembering. If instant gratification is your thing, exercise can be a drag. It's not something you do once, then sit back and reap a lifetime of rewards. Whether you are a marathon runner, a regular gym-goer or someone who only walks a few times a week, you'll likely lose half your fitness if you don't train at all for a week, said Nigel Stepto, associate professor in exercise physiology at Victoria University.
Research does suggest, however, that those with higher levels of fitness who have been exercising for longer hold onto their fitness for longer than newer exercisers.
When you have a break from exercise, the most noticeable change will be to your cardio, or aerobic, fitness. This is the ability of your lungs, heart, and blood vessels to take in oxygen and transport it to your muscles, where it is used to produce energy for movement.
The more you work this cardio-respiratory system, the more efficient it is at doing its job. But take a break of more than a couple of days and your cardiovascular fitness drops off very quickly. You've probably noticed you get puffed when running up the stairs after missing a few workouts. That's because when you lose cardio-fitness your heart has to work harder to get enough blood and oxygen to your deconditioned muscles, which require extra fuel because they have had a reduction in some of the important proteins in the energy-producing pathways and components of the muscle tissue, Dr Stepto said.
This results in a higher demand for blood to bring oxygen and remove carbon dioxide and other undesirable by-products of energy production while performing the exact same exercising session you did before having the prolonged break. If you go below that size, they self-destruct and turn into connective tissue.
Sure, missing a workout here and there isn't a huge deal. After all, we have so many competing factors in life pulling us in different directions. Some days exercise isn't going to happen.
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