It happens to the best of us:
You get injured, find yourself working around the clock or are otherwise forced
to put exercise on the back burner for a while. And when the holidays roll
around, you’re also provided an incentive to eat and drink and skip your
workouts until January. But a day or two can easily stretch into weeks or even
months, and you’re right back to square one. In technical terms, you’ve become “deconditioned.”
In fact, 25 to 35 percent of adult exercisers quit working out within two to
five months of starting, according to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM).
How quickly your fitness level declines depends on several factors. Some may
surprise you.
1. Cardiovascular Fitness Starts to Tank After One Week
Aerobic fitness is defined as the ability of the body to transport and utilize
oxygen from your blood in your muscles. This measure, also known as VO2 max,
decreases after as few as one to two weeks of inactivity, says Danielle Weis,
doctor of physical therapy with Spring Forward Physical Therapy in New York
City. “The functional capacity of the heart also decreases. After three to four
weeks of bed rest, your resting heart rate increases by four to 15 beats, and
blood volume decreases by five percent in 24 hours and 20 percent in two weeks.”
2. You Lose Cardiovascular Fitness More Slowly If You’re a Seasoned Exerciser
If you’re new to fitness and recently started working out (less than six
months), you’ll lose fitness faster than someone who’s been exercising a year or
longer, says Brad Thomas, M.D., orthopedic surgeon and UCLA chief of sports
medicine. “You’ll lose up to 40 percent of your cardio fitness, but your fitness
VO2 max will still be higher than someone who’s never exercised,” he says. For
example, you take two people: one who’s exercised regularly for two years and
the other for only two months. If both stop working out, they will both lose all
their gains quickly -- by about six weeks. “But the well-trained athlete will
lose about 40 percent and then plateau,” says Thomas. So trained athletes lose
less fitness than sedentary people who’ve only recently started exercising.
3. Flexibility Loss Occurs Quickly
You lose the benefits of flexibility quickly if you take any substantial time
off from stretching, says Michele Olson, professor of exercise science at Auburn
University in Montgomery, Alabama. “After a bout of flexibility exercise, the
muscles and tendons begin to retract to their typical resting length --
particularly if you sit during your commute regularly and/or sit at a desk at
your job.” Olson notes that you’ll notice a loss of flexibility in as few as
three days, with even more pronounced changes occurring at the two-week mark.
“Stretching should be done at least three times a week -- if not daily,” she
says.
4. Strength Starts to Diminish After Two Weeks
When you quit strength training, changes in your muscles begin to occur within
days, says exercise physiologist Michelle Olson. “Muscle, when not receiving its
regular challenge, will start to lose protein, which is absorbed into your
circulation and excreted via urination. Small but meaningful loss in muscle
protein (the building block of the contractile units for each muscle fiber) can
begin to occur in 72 hours.” Noticeable changes when attempting to lift your
usual amount of weight show up in two to three weeks, adds Olson. And as with
cardiovascular fitness, long-term exercisers will see a slower muscle loss than
those new to exercise, says Dr. Brad Thomas.
5. You Lose Power Faster Than You Lose Strength
Power, defined as strength times distance over a period of time (e.g., how
quickly you can hoist a weight or dash across the street to make the light),
fades faster than strength, says physical therapist Danielle Weis. “Strength
losses first occur due to a change in the nerve’s impulses to muscle fibers,
shortly followed by actual muscle wasting.” During muscle wasting, protein
breaks down at a faster rate and protein synthesis (building) drops. The time it
takes for you to return to your original fitness level depends on the reason you
stopped exercising in the first place -- whether due to illness or simply lack
of time.
6. Fitness Levels Decline Faster When You’re Sick
Someone who’s healthy and takes a break from exercise loses muscle mass and
cardiovascular fitness more slowly than a person who stops exercising due to an
illness or injury. The latter will lose fitness levels twice as fast, says Dr.
Brad Thomas. The stress of an illness or injury takes a greater toll on the body
than simply taking a break when you’re healthy. Whether you’re an athlete or
recreational exerciser, if you’ve taken a few weeks off from your routine, your
level of deconditioning will be pretty low, says physical therapist Danielle
Weis. “If you are recovering from a fracture, surgery or have been on bed rest,
it can take up to and longer than 12 to 24 months to fully recover.”
7. Maintenance Is Easier Than You Think
If you’re planning to take time off from your workout routine, keep in mind that
staying in shape isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition. In fact, you can maintain
your fitness levels in a surprisingly small amount of time, says Dr. Brad
Thomas. “In order to maintain both aerobic and strength levels, you need just 20
minutes of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) twice a week.” Thomas
cautions that the work effort must be truly high-intensity, at between 80 and 90
percent of your maximum heart rate.
8. Aging Affects Fitness Loss
You lose strength and overall fitness twice as quickly as you age, says Dr. Brad
Thomas. “It’s largely due to hormone levels. As we age, we have lower levels of
human growth hormone (HGH), which makes it harder to recover.” We also lose our
ability to handle stress and recover from the resulting stress hormones, such as
cortisol. As we get older, this same mechanism results in greater fatigue after
a workout. Older athletes take longer to recover from workouts in general,
according to several studies, including a 2008 article published in the Journal
of Aging and Physical Activity.
9. It Takes Three Weeks to Gain Back One Week Off
After a period of lying around, your nervous system loses its ability to fire up
as it did before you took time off, says Irv Rubenstein, exercise physiologist
and founder of STEPS, a science-based fitness facility in Nashville, Tennessee.
That’s due to the fact that you lose the neural stimuli that enables you to lift
heavy objects with the same amount of effort. “When you return to lifting, you
may be able to lift the same weights, but you will be working above your normal
capacity, which could put tissue at risk. It will take a greater effort to do
what you used to do and will require more rest between sets and days in order to
recover. ”A novice who’s taken time off during the holidays will need to start
from scratch. The athlete or experienced lifter can start back to where they
were in early November and give it a month to get back to speed.
(Special thanks to Linda Melone for this informations)