What is the longest you can rest without losing gains?

Lysander666

As title, I can't really work out properly till tomorrow or Tuesday, which will be a week since my last workout. Is this too long? How long before you start noticeably losing gains or fitness?

Hendrix7

longer than a week, de-load or rest weeks are common in strength training programs.

sugaree1202

When I took the required fitness class during my B.S., the professor said 3-5 days for cardiovascular fitness, 1 week for muscle strength. You should be fine!

CoachDreesTraining

When I took the required fitness class during my B.S., the professor said 3-5 days for cardiovascular fitness, 1 week for muscle strength. You should be fine!

This is extremely wrong.

- Power can start dropping off around 3-5 days
- Maximal strength and mass 3-4 weeks
- aerobic around 30 days

Keep in mind they loses will be extremely small, and are only applicable to elite athletes. They will also return quickly.

sugaree1202

When I took the required fitness class during my B.S., the professor said 3-5 days for cardiovascular fitness, 1 week for muscle strength. You should be fine!

This is extremely wrong.

- Power can start dropping off around 3-5 days
- Maximal strength and mass 3-4 weeks
- aerobic around 30 days

Keep in mind they loses will be extremely small, and are only applicable to elite athletes. They will also return quickly.

When I stop working put for a month, I notice a huge drop in my cardiovascular endurance, and more than 1 week definitely affects it. That's not to say it goes to 0 after 3 days but it's not the same if not maintained, same with strength/power after a week. I doubt the woman with 30 years in the field and a doctorate in exercise science is just making stuff up.

chrisdavey

OP: what type of training are you doing?

Either way, a week will not hinder your performance. Could possibly increase it if you have been training a lot.

MsDrJuris

Every 12 weeks or so, I actually take a week off to give my body time to rebuild itself. I train hard, but that week off is amazing, and when I come back, I actually lift the same or more than I did before I took my break. Just food for thought.

CoachDreesTraining

When I took the required fitness class during my B.S., the professor said 3-5 days for cardiovascular fitness, 1 week for muscle strength. You should be fine!

This is extremely wrong.

- Power can start dropping off around 3-5 days
- Maximal strength and mass 3-4 weeks
- aerobic around 30 days

Keep in mind they loses will be extremely small, and are only applicable to elite athletes. They will also return quickly.

When I stop working put for a month, I notice a huge drop in my cardiovascular endurance, and more than 1 week definitely affects it. That's not to say it goes to 0 after 3 days but it's not the same if not maintained, same with strength/power after a week. I doubt the woman with 30 years in the field and a doctorate in exercise science is just making stuff up.

Well perhaps you misunderstood her. Research "residual training effects", there is a lot of research on the topic.

sugaree1202

I clearly understood her say, if you want to maintain cardiovascular endurance, try not to go more than 3 days without cardio. If you have to, a week tops or substitue running for swimming. It was in the context of discussion regarding the university pool being closed for 2 weeks and me asking if I would lose my 2 months progress regarding endurance and speed since I was swimming to a 30 minute mile. Thanks anyway buddy.

CoachDreesTraining

I clearly understood her say, if you want to maintain cardiovascular endurance, try not to go more than 3 days without cardio. If you have to, a week tops or substitue running for swimming. It was in the context of discussion regarding the university pool being closed for 2 weeks and me asking if I would lose my 2 months progress regarding endurance and speed since I was swimming to a 30 minute mile. Thanks anyway buddy.

Well in that case, she is mistaken. I'm not going off my own experience, I going off scientific research.

sugaree1202

I clearly understood her say, if you want to maintain cardiovascular endurance, try not to go more than 3 days without cardio. If you have to, a week tops or substitue running for swimming. It was in the context of discussion regarding the university pool being closed for 2 weeks and me asking if I would lose my 2 months progress regarding endurance and speed since I was swimming to a 30 minute mile. Thanks anyway buddy.

Well in that case, she is mistaken. I'm not going off my own experience, I going off scientific research.

You do know research isn't fact, right? Depends on the quality of the study, co-correlating factors, etc. Anyone can back up anything by putting together a crappy experiment. Often research studies contradict each other.

You're seriously telling me if I stopped working out today, I would have the same level of cardiovascular endurance 1 month from now and would be able to maintain the same level of exertion of today's workout for the same amount of time at the same level of comfort - meaning, not huffing and puffing through it?

CoachDreesTraining

I clearly understood her say, if you want to maintain cardiovascular endurance, try not to go more than 3 days without cardio. If you have to, a week tops or substitue running for swimming. It was in the context of discussion regarding the university pool being closed for 2 weeks and me asking if I would lose my 2 months progress regarding endurance and speed since I was swimming to a 30 minute mile. Thanks anyway buddy.

Well in that case, she is mistaken. I'm not going off my own experience, I going off scientific research.

You do know research isn't fact, right? Depends on the quality of the study, co-correlating factors, etc. Anyone can back up anything by putting together a crappy experiment. Often research studies contradict each other.

You're seriously telling me if I stopped working out today, I would have the same level of cardiovascular endurance 1 month from now and would be able to maintain the same level of exertion of today's workout for the same amount of time at the same level of comfort - meaning, not huffing and puffing through it?

From a physiological standpoint, yes.

composite

My own personal experience suggested to me that's it's longer than one week but I do have some caveats to that.

I'm currently training for 12 and 24 hour solo mountain bike endurance racing. I began training the first time round early last year but then broke my arm in a crash. I had to take 8 weeks off but when I got back on the bike, first ride back I pulled off a personal best for that route. I was pretty shocked as well.

However some points to consider:
1. It was a shorter ride than I had been used to pre-broken arm. I had been used to do doing 6 hour-ish efforts at medium intensity. This was about 3 hours and at a medium high to high intensity. Maybe this made a difference?

2. Secondly I'm pretty sure that I had a fair amount of "cumulative fatigue" built up over months of training so having had 8 weeks rest could have really been the difference.

3. Unfortunately after 2 more rides I started getting pain where the break had been and I was off the bike again for another 4weeks, at which point when I came back I noticed a big drop in performance.

In terms of weight training though I can feel a difference far quicker. I had to have 2 weeks off the gym recently because of a slight wrist injury (you guessed it a light crash mountain biking) and I felt quite weak when going back. Had to do less reps on the same weight.