Elite endurance athletes often “taper” or reduce training volume within 2-3 weeks of an event/race and find that within this time, the cumulative fatigue of all their training is reduced, allowing them to peak for their event. So we know that a reduction in total aerobic volume within 3 weeks does not impair overall performance and might enhance it as long as some degree of aerobic exercise is still being completed.
Aerobic fitness is task-specific. If you are a runner, swimmer, rower, or cyclist, you will be able to record the most aerobic fitness during that task. The adaptations that make you good at that aerobic task can be split into 1) adaptations that affect the whole body (such as changes within the heart and blood), which support any mode of aerobic training and 2) adaptations that affect being good at moving the specific areas and movement of the body trained during your preferred mode of aerobic exercise (such as movement specific to running, cycling, swimming) for longer periods.
This is important to know as:
This explains why different modes of aerobic exercise all increase aerobic fitness but one mode doesn’t make you really good at another. You need mode-specific adaptations to occur to explain part of being really good at one mode of aerobic exercise.
These whole body and specific aerobic mode adaptations reduce at different time periods. Whole body adaptations reduce first within 3 weeks, while more than 3 weeks of reduction is required for reduction in adaptation around the specific muscles you aerobically train.
Now you know this, the de-adaptations that occur within the first three weeks of rest can be reduced by performing ANY form of aerobic exercise. So if you are on a holiday and can’t access your specific mode of aerobic exercise, like the pool, rower, bike, or good running areas, complete what is accessible to reduce the losses in the first 3 weeks. Or if injury stops you from moving one limb, you can complete some form of single-limb aerobic exercise of the other side to maintain much of your aerobic fitness. Only after 3 weeks, you will need to complete your specific mode of aerobic exercise to maintain movement-specfic adaptations that make you good at that mode of aerobic exercise. If you cannot train at all and take 4-12 weeks off, expect about 5-25% reduction in your aerobic fitness within this time. Do not despair as it takes years of rest from aerobic exercise for some adaptation to completely return back to previous untrained levels https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236590070_Detraining
So apart from time and what type of aerobic exercise you can complete during time off, what other factors affect aerobic fitness reductions
Training history. Ironically, compared to resistance training adaptations, the more aerobically fit you are, the quicker your aerobic fitness adaptations reduce throughout rest from weekly exercise. However, a raised amount of fitness is still kept compared to those with low fitness who have rest from exercise and who likely can completely lose any increased fitness with a long enough rest period PubMeb Link
The intensity of any aerobic activity. It seems that intensity, such as heart rate ranges or average speeds or watts per session, needs to stay high or equal to how intense you usually train to maintain the most aerobic adaptations. Reducing intensity compared to reducing duration or frequency of training has the most significant chance of not significantly maintaining your total aerobic fitness. So train as hard as you usually do when time and frequency are limited during times away from training to reduce aerobic fitness losses.
So, what are our general recommendations for weeks off your regular resistance or aerobic exercise schedule?
There are no one-size-fits-all recommendations to maintain all your adaptations, just general principles to follow that change based off the amount of time off.
Stay as active outside the gym or track as possible when taking time off. It doesn’t take a lot of exercise to maintain your gym gains for most people and abilities.
When there is an opportunity to exercise, make sure your intensity or effort is “normal” or as high as when you usually train. Don’t reduce the intensity, and if you're going to reduce anything, reduce exercise sets, duration, distance, repetitions, or frequency.
Plan to return to exercise to make sure you reap the benefits from lifelong progressive exercise.
Every physically active person will encounter conflicts that limit the time available for exercise. If you are planning a holiday, elective surgery or know of a time you will be away from Method Health, book an appointment with a member of our team to talk about how you can maintain your well-earnt exercise adaptations while you are away and to make the transition back to regular exercise so much easier.
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