Every physically active person has or will encounter a period in which external conflicts limit the time available for exercise. Personal conflicts, injury, family commitments, caring for an ill family member, extended travel, or time commitments for personal or business reasons that limit time availability for regular exercise.
Some common questions we receive from clients regarding deload periods:
“I am going away on holiday. What can I do to prevent losing all my fitness, muscle, and strength from exercise?”
“Will I lose all my gains if I take a break from exercise?”
“What can I do during this injury to minimise aerobic fitness and strength reductions”
Read on to get some insight into ways to manage and maintain your exercise habits during reduced exercise periods.
Overall, If you have been completing consistent weekly exercise training for more than a year, it would take many weeks of doing very little physical activity (e.g., hospital-based bed rest) to reduce previously made progress in aerobic fitness, muscle mass, strength, and power significantly. If you are on a 3-4 week holiday and staying active by walking a lot and occasionally lifting heavy things (like your suitcase), you will likely either maintain all your exercise gains, or it will only take 1-3 weeks of continuing your previous exercise routine to regain what changed during your holiday.
If you do not want to sustain large reductions in your well earnt exercise gains during breaks but can’t train as much as usual, when you do train, make sure your intensity is high, even if the time spent training or weekly frequency is reduced, to maintain your aerobic fitness, muscle, and strength. Complete rest, such as from hospital-based bed rest or injury that results in joint bracing (broken bone or large joint or tendon injury) or non-weight-bearing (wheelchair or crutches), results in more significant reductions and longer periods needed to improve again. However, some form of exercise during these periods while recovering has a significant protective effect of reducing “losses.”
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