Avoiding exercise for just two weeks significantly reduces your fitness, a sports scientist has warned.
Carly Ryan is a physiologist at Exercise and Sports Science Australia in Hamilton, Queensland, where she analyses how the human body benefits from movement.
She answered questions in a blog post for Medibank, advising Australians of how prolonged inactivity affects fitness to prepare them for the reopening of gyms across New South Wales on June 13 and Victoria on June 22.
Gyms are already back in business in Queensland, Tasmania, South and Western Australia, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory, almost three months since the COVID-19 outbreak forced nationwide closures on March 23.
Ms Ryan says people with higher fitness levels who have been regularly exercising throughout their lives hold onto their fitness for longer than newly minted gym-goers.
Avoiding exercise for just two weeks significantly reduces your fitness, according to sports scientist Carly Ryan (stock image)
In other words, the less active you are, the quicker you lose the strength or fitness you’ve built.
Physiologist Carly Ryan from Queensland’s Exercise and Sport Science Australia
‘A person with a higher level of fitness will experience deconditioning [a reversal of accumulated agility and strength] at a slower rate than someone who is relatively new to exercise,’ she said.
How quickly this ‘deconditioning’ occurs also depends on the age, gender and general health of the individual, which means the impact of inactivity varies from person to person.
Sydney sports scientist Tony Boutagy previously told the ABC that a person is ‘only as good as’ their last workout, with health benefits lasting for just 48 hours after each training session.
CARDIO
Ms Ryan says cardio is the first area to decline, with significant losses in speed and stamina after just two weeks off.
Cardio or cardiovascular fitness refers to the body’s ability to transport oxygen to muscles, where it’s used to produce energy.
The more you challenge your cardiovascular system with activities like walking, running, cycling, swimming or aerobics, the more efficient it becomes.
Decreased cardio fitness forces the heart to work harder to pump oxygenated blood around the body, which causes you to feel fatigued and breathless faster.
Some will feel a drop in stamina within the first week of missing workouts, Ms Ryan warns.
STRENGTH AND MUSCLE
Muscle mass and strength take longer to lose – anywhere between three weeks and three months – and are easier to maintain with light exercise and limited movement, Ms Ryan says.
Athletes start to lose noticeable muscle strength after three weeks of skipping workouts, a 2013 study of professional American footballers found.
Ms Ryan says this happens when there is no stimulation, which causes muscles to shrink and weaken.
‘Some suggest you can lose up to 10 percent of strength in one week, and over three months you will lose most of your gains,’ she said.
Muscle strength take between three weeks and three months to lose, and is easier to maintain with light exercise than cardio fitness (stock image)
REGAINING FITNESS
In good news for gym-deprived Australians, Ms Ryan says maintaining fitness is much easier than building it, so there’s no need to panic about taking a few months off.
In fact, rest periods are crucial in between workouts to give muscles time to recover, provided they don’t outnumber your training days.
To stay fit, Ms Ryan recommends two sessions of resistance training and 150 minutes of moderate physical activity each week.
Resistance-based movements like squats, bicep curls and push-ups increase strength by forcing muscles to work against a force like free weights, weight machines, resistance bands or your own body weight.
Ms Ryan says it’s good to start slowly, maximising your movement by taking the stairs instead of the lift, cleaning the house, gardening or getting off public transport one stop before you normally would to increase your step count.