Summer Vacations– to Exercise or Not…How Fast Will You Lose Your Fitness?
You’ve been exercising regularly and want to maintain the benefits. Yet, a serious dilemma is presented. You’re leaving for a much-needed vacation. Do you bring your workout shoes or take a break? Find out how quickly you will lose the benefits of your exercise efforts if you push pause on your exercise regimen during your vacation…
Exercise Training Principles
If you were previously exercising and you take a couple of weeks off from your regimen to do nothing but lay by the lake, this is called detraining.
Specifically, detraining is a reduction in the total volume of physical activity (i.e. frequency, intensity, and/or duration) that results in a corresponding decline in physical fitness.
The exercise training principle of reversibility is that training induced adaptations to exercise can disappear when a person reduces or stops training. Put simply, we lose the fitness benefits of exercise (e.g. cardiovascular fitness, strength, endurance, etc.) if we stop exercising.
How quickly does fitness decline when we stop exercising?
Detraining effects depend on two things:
1. The length of the detraining period: days verses weeks verses months?
2. The baseline fitness level of the exerciser: are you beginner verses an elite athlete?
On average, research shows that the fitness benefits that have been gained from exercise will begin to reverse after about two weeks. This does not mean that at the 14 day mark all gains are now gone. Instead, the loss of fitness is a gradual process that happens over the course of months.
Specifically, nearly all improvements from exercise are lost within two-eight months of the cessation of an exercise regimen. Novice exercisers lose their fitness faster, closer to two months of detraining. Those who are more advanced in their fitness take closer to eight months to return to their base-line, pre-exercise fitness level.
Furthermore, aerobic fitness is lost quicker than muscular strength. I find this good news. It is much easier to maintain an aerobic regimen while traveling than a resistance training regimen (it’s hard to pack dumbbells in your carry-on).
The following are ideas to maintain aerobic fitness on vacation:
• Take a walk down the beach after lunch.
• Hop in the pool and swim a couple of laps or tread water for a few minutes.
• Walk to a restaurant for dinner instead of driving.
The following are ways to maintain muscular strength while traveling:
• Borrow the foam noodle from your kids and use it like a dumbbell in the pool (an exercise often used in aquatic fitness classes). The resistance of the water will help maintain muscular strength.
• Use your body weight as resistance in movements like push-ups, sit-ups, squats, and lunges.
Vacation Tips for the Die-Hard Exerciser
1. You can maintain your fitness in a shorter amount of time by doing HIIT (high-intensity interval training). HIIT training is not for everyone. You need to have a base-line level of fitness before doing high-intensity exercise in order to avoid injury. If you are already moderately fit, examples of HIIT regimens could include…
• 5 sets: 1-minute sprint, 1 minute walk = 10 minutes total
• 5 sets: run up two flights of stairs, walk back down = 10 minutes total
• 5 sets: 1-minute squat jumps, 1 minute walk/jog = 10 minutes total
Ultra-Die-Hard Exercisers (you know who you are) could do each of these examples with a small child on your back to add intensity. 😉 HOWEVER, ultra-die-hard exercisers also need to read tip #2 twice….
2. Remember that you are on VACATION!! The science says that you will NOT lose your fitness if you take a few days or even a week off. Give yourself permission to REST. I had a die-hard exerciser tell me once that he didn’t like holidays because his family would come and interfere with his training regimen. While I can relate to this sentiment, my encouragement is to avoid a rigid approach to exercise where you obsess over doing your workout exactly as you’ve planned it on your spreadsheet. Instead, allow yourself to stray from the plan and to improvise fun activities that the whole family can participate in. Aim to approach exercise and physical activity as a lifestyle that brings energy and vitality to you, your family, and your vacation.
Aim to approach exercise and physical activity as a lifestyle that brings energy and vitality to you, your family, and your vacation.
Vacation Tips for the Not-So-Die-Hard Exerciser
Remember that something is better than nothing and that every minute counts! You don’t have to exercise for an hour at a gym to maintain your fitness. If you are a person that tends to fall off the wagon, so-to-speak, with brief breaks in your exercise regimen, it may benefit the long-term maintenance of your exercise habit to deliberately add some brief stints of family friendly physical activity throughout your vacation.
Thanks for reading! 🙂
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Reference:
Haff, G., & Triplett, T. (2016) Essentials of Strength and Conditioning. Human Kinetics.
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