What happens when you stop exercising?

There are factors that can get in the way to achieve your fitness goal. Injuries, needing to focus on something else, or simply lack of motivation or losing interest. 

Now the question is, how long does it take to get out of shape if you stop working out?

Reversibility

The reversibility (often referred to as the “detraining effect”) can result in the reversal of some or all benefits you have received from exercising regularly. The severity of this effect is highly individual and dependent on the current form and training history.

BREAKS SHORTER THAN 4 WEEKS

Endurance  

For recreational trainees, training history will definitely make a difference. If you have been working out for a couple of months before your break, you most likely won’t notice much change. However, if you have more than a year of training under your belt, you probably notice your endurance decreasing first. 

Strength, muscle volume, and flexibility.

For an average trainee, having breaks shorter than 4 weeks usually will not drastically decrease the strength. Generally speaking, it’s not that hard to get your strength back up after a short break. However, it may be different for highly-trained athletes, as their development curve is well above average. 

When glycogen levels drop, it could make your muscles appear smaller, due to less water retention. Not to worry, this effect can be reversed relatively quickly once getting back to the gym.

Flexibility decreases usually quicker and is usually most felt in the hips, torso, shoulders, and spine. This can be confused with soreness and is often handled with getting more rest, therefore increasing pain and stiffness. Moving bodies are healed with movement. 

BREAKS LONGER THAN 4 WEEKS

Endurance

Endurance keeps decreasing. After 4 weeks, you are at risk of losing most or all your cardio gains and your cardiorespiratory system is slowly returning to its pre-trained state.

Muscle volume and strength

The loss of lean muscle mass starts happening slowly. Physiologically, this simulates the aging process. When it comes to strength, researchers don’t give the same results. It seems that the rate at which you lose strength gains depends on so many factors (months /years of training, the type of training, your age, etc.) it’s difficult to pinpoint the timetable and severity of strength decline.

How to keep the negative effects to a minimum?

If you know that you can’t return to your regular training routine soon, don’t worry. You can try some of the following tips to keep your reversibility  to a minimum:

• Focus on intensity: You can maintain a lot of your fitness by reducing time spent on your workouts up to 50% and cranking up the intensity – try HIIT for example!

• Cross-training: If you are injured, ask your doctor or physiotherapist which activity is safest for you. Swimming is often considered a good alternative. This works especially well in preserving fitness levels for recreational athletes. It is especially important to find cross-training activities that match the specific demands of the person’s fitness goals.

• Eat more protein: Making sure that you eat enough protein will help you at least slow down the catabolic process (breaking down of muscles).