How fast do you lose it?
Losses
occur fastest during the first three weeks of slacking
Detraining
Calendar
Sunday
Monday Tuesday
Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
Days
1 - 2
Days 3-5
Last day of training
Adrenaline
and beta-endorphin levels drop. Your mood is affected negatively, but your body
stays intact. Aerobic and power capabilities are the same.
Your
muscles become tight from disuse and your flexibility is decreased. Touching
your toes and other activities involving flexibility become more difficult and
are often painful. Your aerobic capabilities are decreased 5% by fifth day
off.
8
10
11
12
Day
6
You feel out of breath when [just walking up a flight of stairs
Days 7 - 9
You begin to have trouble sleeping and your attention span is shorter.
Paying attention in class becomes more difficult. The body's ability to use
oxygen (your V02 max) drops by 10%. Less oxygenated blood is pumped with
each heartbeat.
Days 10
Your
body's metabolic rate has begun to drop. You see added pounds.
Days 11-13
Your maximum heart rate and cardiac output is falling. Your ability to
perform endurance activities declines by 15%. Your muscle tone is
disappearing.
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
Day
13
Days 14-16
Days 17 -19
You feel sluggish and unable to perform normal daily activities as well
as before.
Mitochondrial activity (energy production) in your muscle cells
decreases. This causes you to feel lazy and without energy. This decreased
cellular energy production also causes a continual drop in your metabolic
rate. Your body feels soft.
Your body becomes less efficient at sweating
and
cooling itself off. You can not get rid of excess heat
as easily and your body gets tired just trying to stay
cool. Your muscles are getting less oxygen and your
heart pumps less blood with each heart beat._____
20
21
22
23
24
25
261
Days 20 - 21
Your V02 max has dropped by
20%. Your body's ability to use
oxygen has decreased by a fifth
and simple aerobic tasks now
leave you breathless._________
Days 22 - 25
With
the decrease in aerobic conditioning by 25%, you are also experiencing a
decline in your anaerobic capabilities. Activities that involve short bursts of
energy, such as weight lifting or sprints, become increasingly difficult and
painful. You have lost 15-20% of your muscle mass and that lost mass in
replaced with fat.
Day 26
You
notice very obvious loss of muscle mass and your once hard muscles are soft.
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
Days 27 - 28
It
would now be impossible for you to perform the aerobic and anaerobic activities
that were a regular part of your training. Huge decreases have occurred.
Days 29 - 30
Your
muscle strength has now declined by 30% and atrophy has set in. Loss of muscle
mass means lower resting metabolism. Lifting previous weight is impossible
...
and beyond the first month
Within 2-4
months, practically all gains from
V02 max training are lost. Your sports-specific
skills deteriorate and the rowing motion now
feels awkward. Your muscle strength erodes
by 40% and all muscle definition is gone.____
The Breakdown Rate: The exact rate at which you slide downhill to baseline (sedentary
fitness level) is determined by your genetics, the shape you were in when you
stopped exercising, and how long you had been fit. It may not seem fair, but
the fitter you are, the faster you loose the benefits of working out. On the
other hand, fitter people don't fall apart quite as much or to the same degree as
sedentary people (couch potatoes). Moderately fit people show little change in
the first weeks, but their capacities do decrease in subsequent weeks to a
higher degree than the fitter athletes.
What does this all mean? Do not wait for your winter
crew training program or other winter sport to start before you begin training.
Continue training to maintain all the aerobic and anaerobic gains you have made
this fall with daily training and weekend races. Continue to gain endurance and
strength!
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