How Fast Does Fitness Fade?

ACE-SPONSORED RESEARCH

We’ve all been there—after months of hard work, you take a short hiatus from your usual workout routine, only to find yourself feeling sluggish as you churn away on the elliptical or are barely able to lift dumbbells you were doing full sets with just weeks before.

A return to the gym—or wherever you may go to exercise—is always tough, but is the loss of fitness and strength you feel genuine and, if so, can it be quantified?

There are countless reasons why we may need to take an extended break from our routine. From illness and injury to vacation, holidays, semester breaks or a busy period at work, everyone has times in our lives when exercise slips down the list of priorities. How long does a break have to last to begin to have deleterious effects on person’s health and fitness? How much will a two-week break, or a four-week break, set a person back?

It’s clear that fitness fades over time, but by how much? And how quickly?

To find out, ACE enlisted the help of Lance Dalleck, PhD, and his team of researchers in the High Altitude Exercise Physiology Program at Western State Colorado University. The purpose of this study was to examine the physiological implications when one hits the “pause button” on a regular exercise training program. The goal was to quantify the timing and magnitude of changes in physical fitness and cardiometabolic health outcomes that occur with the cessation of regular exercise training.

If you interested to read the whole study use the link at the end of this post to download this ACE Study. However, the short bottom line is: get back and keep exercising!

The Bottom Line

The major findings from this study were threefold:

• An individualized exercise program elicited significant improvements in all areas of physical fitness and key cardiometabolic risk factors over 13 weeks of exercise training.
• These favorable adaptations were further enhanced with an additional month of exercise training.
• Cessation of regular exercise rapidly abolished all training adaptions within one month.

Download and print the ACE Fitness Fade Study (328 KB)