The good news, though, is that depending on your baseline fitness and how long you out, you may not have lost as much as you fear. Everyone has off days in the gym or runs that feel like they take extra effort.
In order for a performance loss to be attributed to detraining also known as deconditioning , it must come after a break from training.
Many physiological processes that do affect performance are also changed when you take a break from the gym. Your metabolism may also begin to slow as muscle mass decreases and the body is no longer supporting a more active lifestyle. Endurance athletes or those primarily concerned with aerobic capacity get the short end of the stick — you lose aerobic fitness faster than anything else.
After two weeks of no training at all , the average person experiences an initial drop in their VO2 max. This first shift primarily comes from the heart pumping less blood with each beat, which means less oxygen is making it to your muscles. When you take two weeks off training, the volume of blood in your body will actually decrease, giving your heart less to work with as your heart rate increases.
As time away from training increases, your VO2 max continues to decrease. After 4 weeks off, the average athlete will see a decrease of 6 percent. After 9 weeks, that jumps to 19 percent, and after 11 weeks of no aerobic training, most people have lost 25 percent of their VO2 max. So, elite level runners will detrain at the same rate that an amateur competitor will, but the elite runner will still be faster than the amateur in a direct comparison.
Muscular strength sticks around substantially longer than aerobic endurance. For strength athletes, more than 4 weeks can pass before any severe reductions in performance occur. In some cases, up to 6 weeks can pass with little to no change in ability.
Muscular strength can be maintained with one to two strength sessions per week. A study documenting the impact of decreased resistance training among female rowers actually observed strength gains in some lifts, and no loss in others. Age is a factor, too: Older people lose fitness faster, and younger people generally regain it quicker.
So what can you do to avoid being totally sedentary during forced time off? If cycling is out, ask about yoga or Pilates. Or give it a thumbs up! I like this article You liked this article Thanks!
Please note that the information provided in the Polar Blog articles cannot replace individual advice from health professionals. Please consult your physician before starting a new fitness program. Hi Eric, thanks for reaching out.
Glad you enjoyed that article, you need to take a listen to our podcasts, we have many more inspiring guests, some with tales of runners who started running in their 80s and even 90s! Thanks for the article. It explains why I am struggling so much in this 10K clinic. I came off a heavy ski season which included a 7 day late spring back country trip where we climbed to feet a day. Then I had a big surgery which recommended at least 6 weeks off.
At week 4 I tried a 5K run on my own which took 33 mins and it exhausted me for a week and caused quite a bit pain. I am huffing and puffing like crazy.
Tonight was a tempo run, 6K, 2K warm up, 3K race pace, 1K cool back. I could not hold the tempo pace for more than 1. I chose the 10K clinic as I knew after 10 weeks off I had to start small but holy hannah, I never thought it would be this hard! To get my running fitness back faster should I push to add more easy running days. I am still recovering from the hernia repair and my muscular strength is pathetic.
What to do….. Hi Erica, thanks for reaching out. Try not to lose hope, your body will remember what it is doing before you know it, and you will get that running fitness back. It would be best for you to make sure you incorporate easy runs as that is the biggest mistake most runners make and what puts most runners at risk of injury.
The cross training you do will help you more than you realize, so keep that up. Be careful you are not putting yourself at risk of overtraining by trying to do too much too soon though! I even did my first 10km run at per km about twelve days after I got back into it, and I have no idea how I bounced back so fast.
Great Cait! Thanks for sharing! Nice job! Very exciting! Best of luck with your continued training, you will continue to get stronger! I run cross country. We start training in May and end in late October, early November. I took the November and December off because I seemed to have lost my love of running briefly. I got a little burnt out on the 5am practices. Our old coach left and I didnt like my new coach.
She had us doing too much speed work and not enough mileage. I went on a 5 mile run today. I stopped a few times and I never stop. What should I do to get my aerobic base back? Thank you for your time, Danielle. But sometimes it's inevitable: You get the flu, have a really busy week at work, take a vacation with the family, or experience a running injury.
No matter the reason for taking some time away from running, the best thing you can do is get back to your normal training volume as quickly and safely as possible. Even though that's usually the best intention, it doesn't always happen. So how soon do you actually lose the fitness you've worked so hard to gain when you take time off? 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.
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