When will my fitness return post holiday?
BeachLife Physiotherapy • 4 September 2024
Taken a break from training while overseas and wondering when your fitness and strength will return?
WHAT IS DETRAINING?
Detraining is the marked decrease in training resulting in a decrease in anatomical, physiological and performance adaptations.
Detraining effects will depend on two main factors:
- Length of inactivity: Long term >4 weeks, short term <4 weeks
- Training background: High trained versus recently trained.
SHORT TERM DETRAINING (<4 WEEKS)
CARDIORESPIRATORY FITNESS
- In the short term this is characterised by a rapid reduction in VO2 MAX in highly trained individuals and a smaller reduction in recently trained individuals.
STRENGHT
- Can generally be maintained up to 4 weeks, however eccentric force and sports specific power athletes may experience significant declines in performance.
LONG TERM DETRAINING (>4 WEEKS)
- Maintaining training intensity but reducing training volume - can reduce training volume by up to 60-90%, however training frequency needs to be less than 20-30% in order to maintain adaptations
- So you can reduce how long you're training but not how frequently you are training.
STRATEGIES TO PREVENT DETRAINING - REDUCE VOLUME, MAINTAIN INTENSITY AND SLIGHTLY REDUCE FREQUENCY
- Maintain training intensity but reducing training volume - can reduce training volume by up to 60-90%
- However, training frequency needs to be less than 20-30% in order to maintain adaptations.
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