What is the longest you can rest without losing gains?

Lysander666
Lysander666 Posts: 275 Member
edited January 27 in Fitness and Exercise
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?

Replies

  • Hendrix7
    Hendrix7 Posts: 1,903 Member
    longer than a week, de-load or rest weeks are common in strength training programs.
  • sugaree1202
    sugaree1202 Posts: 184 Member
    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
    CoachDreesTraining Posts: 223 Member
    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
    sugaree1202 Posts: 184 Member
    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
    chrisdavey Posts: 9,834 Member
    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
    MsDrJuris Posts: 41
    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
    CoachDreesTraining Posts: 223 Member
    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
    sugaree1202 Posts: 184 Member
    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
    CoachDreesTraining Posts: 223 Member
    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
    sugaree1202 Posts: 184 Member
    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
    CoachDreesTraining Posts: 223 Member
    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
    composite Posts: 138 Member
    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.
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