Detraining and the body
Detraining is the physiological changes that occur in response to a reduction or cessation of regular physical training. It is what happens to our body when we lose a few weeks of training or when we stop completely. There are many components of fitness, and for the purpose of this article, we’ll see how two of them are affected by detraining: muscular strength and power, and cardiorespiratory endurance.
Muscle strength and power
Loss of muscle strength and power is relatively small during the first months after training is stopped. In one study, no strength losses were observed four weeks after completing a 3-week resistance training program. Research indicates that once training has ceased, muscle strength and power can be retained for up to 6 weeks. By adding a training session once every 10 to 14 days, the strength can last much longer than this.
These figures are only relevant for healthy people who have stopped training. Sick or immobilized people will experience a much faster decline in strength and power.
Cardiorespiratory endurance
The news for cardiorespiratory endurance is not so good. Fitness in this area is rapidly lost after the cessation of formal resistance training. In a study conducted in endurance-trained athletes, 2 to 4 weeks of reduced activity resulted in a 9% decrease in blood volume, a 12% decrease in stroke volume, and a 12% decrease in plasma volume. Since cardiorespiratory fitness is greatly affected by the heart and blood, these figures caused VO2 max. (Maximum oxygen consumption) of the athletes was reduced by a significant 5.9%.
The loss of cardiorespiratory endurance is much greater than the reductions in strength and power during the same period of time. Even training once or twice a week is not enough to prevent loss of cardiovascular conditioning.
What does this tell us about our training?
If you are doing balanced weekly sessions of both muscular power and cardiovascular endurance, and you have to miss sessions, it is best to make up with cardio-based exercises. You will only need to train your muscles every 10-14 days to maintain what you have, while you need to train at least 3 times a week to maintain your cardiovascular health.
For those of you who are trying to gain cardiovascular benefit by training just once or twice a week in this area, keep dreaming! Once or twice a week is not enough to maintain, much less to develop cardiovascular health.
