Health & Fitness: Use it or Lose

How true is this phrase ?Use It or Lose It?

I have always believed in this statement, and thought, yeah I will be right as long as I keep going to the gym and do something along those lines.? Sounds familiar?? Do you remember about three to four weeks ago when I wrote an article, when I went to Zimbabwe for my mum?s funeral and wrote an article,5-fast-ways-to-burn-100-calories.? And this was about month ago, so what happened during the past month, when I got back from Zimbabwe is I was so so jet-legged both emotionally and physically.? I had traveled for about 3.5 days and mourned (sang and danced as we do at funerals in my culture) for the whole time I was in Zim.? Which meant that when I got back to Melbourne, back to routine, meant going back to exercising.? I can tell you now, it has been a struggle, my body could not cope with it all, so being health conscious, as I thrive to be, I kept on going to the gym.? I JUST COULD NOT STOP, why?? Because I know that if i did not use it for a while I would lose it very quickly .

So, for about a month, I did very little resistance training (because I have been bruised, physically, emotionally? and mentally).? And today, thought to myself, ummm I think I have recovered enough by now, lets get on with it.? Surprise, surprise, I could not do half of the reps and weight that I usually do when I do Kettle-bell swings.? Remember, from the article,health-and-fitness-begins-at-40, one day I got angry with myself and? ended up swinging a 20kg kettle-bell.? Guess what happened today, the maximum I could swing today was 16kg, and it was a struggle, I was not comfortable but had to keep on telling myself that surely I can do this.? But the honest truth, I could comfortably swing 12kg kettle bell today.

So what does that mean??? well

We?ve all heard the saying. And while it?s true that you will lose fitness when you stop exercising, how quickly you lose it depends on several factors, including how fit you are, how long you have been exercising and how long you stop.

Losing fitness when you stop working out is one of the key principles of conditioning. The principle of use/disuse simply means that when we stop exercising, we generally begin to decondition, and lose both strength and aerobic fitness. Most of us need to stop exercising on occasion for any number of reasons. Illness, injury, holidays, work, travel and social commitments often interfere with training routines. When this happens, we will often see a decline in our level of conditioning.

Detraining in Fit Athletes

Deconditioning in fit athletes doesn?t appear to happen as quickly or drastically as in beginning exercisers. One study looked at well-conditioned athletes who had been training regularly for a year. They then stopped exercise entirely. After three months, researchers found that the athletes lost about half of their aerobic conditioning.

Detraining in Beginning Athletes

The outcome is much different for new exercisers. Another study followed new exercisers as they began a training program and then stopped exercise. Researchers had sedentary individuals start a bicycle fitness program for two months. During those eight weeks, the exercisers made dramatic cardiovascular improvements and boosted their aerobic capacity substantially. At eight weeks, they quit exercising for the next two months. They were tested again and were found to have lost all of their aerobic gains and returned to their original fitness levels.

Detraining and Exercise Frequency and Intensity

Other research is looking at the effects of decreasing training level, rather than completely stopping all exercise. The results are more encouraging for athletes who need to reduce training due to time constraints, illness or injury. One study followed sedentary men through three months of strength training, three times a week. They then cut back to one session per week. They found that these men maintained nearly all the strength gains they developed in the first three months.

There are many individual differences in detraining rates so it?s impossible to apply all of these study results to all athletes. But it appears that if you maintain some higher intensity exercise on a weekly basis, you can maintain your fitness levels fairly well.

Studies have shown that you can maintain your fitness level even if you need to change or cut back on you exercise for several months. In order to do so, you need to exercise at about 70 percent of your VO2 max at least once per week.

If you stop exercise completely for several months it?s difficult to predict exactly how long it will take you to return to your former fitness level. After a three-month break it?s unlikely that any athlete will return to peak condition in a week. In some athletes it may even take as long as three months to regain all their conditioning. The time it takes to regain fitness appears to depend on your original level of fitness and how long you?ve stopped exercise.

There you go, health and fitness, is a lifestyle, you gottta rise above your chhaleneges and keep going.? You cant start and stop (or you can) but might take you longer or even a bit frustrated to achieve your goals.? The idea is to build momentum, another idea is make it a habit to exercise, once you bld momentum and make it a habit to exercise on a daily basis, you are on your way to winning the race.

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Source: http://www.natsai.com/uncategorized/health-fitness-use-it-or-lose/

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