Photo Courtesy Mike Beltzner, Flickr CC
From gym workouts, sports, and being a Hollywood stunt performer to hosting an on-demand, online fitness show, it’s safe to say fitness is my life. It begs the question: What happens if I stop for a week or two? What happens to my body if I decide to take an all-inclusive vacation with tasty cocktails and pure relaxation? Ahhh, sounds amazing!
You know there’ll be some punishment in coming back from a week or two hiatus of consuming calories – those not-so-good-for-you foods - and delicious alcoholic beverages. That punishment includes increased shortness of breath and sweating as well as feeling groggy and cranky… all for that week or two of sin in the sun.
“When it comes to our bodies and our respective levels of fitness, we’re all different. We train differently, we engage in different sports, we vary in age, and we all have unique physical strengths and weaknesses. Consequently, the effects of inactivity, or “detraining,” as it’s often called, will manifest differently from person to person. There are, however, some standard measures that can be used to assess a person’s level of fitness.” George Dvorsky
So, on average, you might ask, how long does it take to lose endurance and strength?
After two weeks off, you will probably start to see a decline in general fitness levels. This can occur at different rates in the muscular and cardiovascular systems. Dr. Karp explains "within one to two weeks of stopping exercise, changes can already be seen in cardiovascular fitness. There are decreases in mitochondrial density (the mitochondria is considered the bodies aerobic engine on a cellular level) and VO2max, also known as maximum oxygen level consumption. Unfortunately, it takes longer to gain fitness than it does to lose fitness. How much longer depends on a number of characteristics, which include: age, level of fitness before taking a break, and genetic responsiveness to training.”
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Translation: if you take a week off fitness in addition to bottomless cocktails, you’re going to have to work a lot harder just to get back to your previous fitness level! Alcohol is a carbohydrate that is converted into a fatty acid instead of being turned into glucose like other types of carbohydrates. The result from this process is most likely extra fat storage. This will put your fat metabolism on hold and you will have to work harder to burn the same amount of fat than if you didn't drink. Another thing about alcohol: the primary reason why alcohol has a negative effect on your workout is due to dehydration. Dehydration makes it harder for the body to efficiently work.
Elite Daily breaks it down to a few stages your body will go through when you stop working out:
1- You may have issues sleeping.
2- You’ll start gaining weight. After a week, your muscles start losing some of their fat burning potential and your metabolism slows down.
3- After about 2 weeks, your muscles start to shrink and you lose positive muscle mass.
4- Your endurance decreases because the amount of oxygen your working muscles can use decreases by about 20% in just 2 weeks, which makes that flight of stairs a lot more difficult!
5- Your stress levels and mood swings will increase due to lack of exercise endorphins.
6- Since you don’t have the exercise endorphins you start craving “comfort food” (pizza, pasta, baked goods, etc.) to replace that ‘feel good’ feeling, we discussed this in the previous Blog, “How Stress Plays a Role in Revealing Your Washboard Stomach”
What have we learned? If you’re going on a lovely vacation and taking time off from your normal gym routine, don’t quit completely! Try to get in at least 30 minutes of a combination bodyweight and cardio sweat session. (Great Option: www.FreeFitnessVideo.com)
Additional Sources:
American College of Sports Medicine. ACSM™’s Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription - "Maintenance of the Training Effect." 7th ed. Baltimore, Md: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2006.
American Council on Exercise.
