How long does it take for one to regain back the fitness lost during a 3 month injury layoff from exercise?Actually what is the rate of fitness loss and in what kinds of areas do they occur at when one stops physical activity? recently had quite an injury which required me to stop training .. hope to recover the fitness gains I made before the layoff..
Regaining fitness after layoff
- Thread starter Aeri
- Start date
Hi Aeri
I think Ric etc is better qualified to answer but from my own experience I think you've basically to start from square one. I think you've lost all your cycling fitness so if your plan is to compete in some event you need say a 3-4 month training schedule to reach your required standard and to regain your fitness. The schedule would be the same as if you were emerging from winter in say January/February and wanted to prepare for June/July with the exception that you'd need to start at lower mileages and intensities and then build up for a month until you can ride long endurance rides then increase your intensity in the usual way.
From a practical point of view I think so. As well as that the year's training you've had isn't so long - for instance I've had 40 months training with only two breaks greater than 3 days (of 8, 18 days off the bike) and many others have similar runs and for much longer periods.
I suppose there's a good chance that some basic infrastructure elements such as the increased capillaries that come with training may still be there.
Thus if you started training now I'd expect you would be stronger at the end of September than at the beginning but would probably have form enough to compete at the start of September.
Hi Aeri.
All of the training you've done in the past years will make a huge difference in getting back to where you were.
If you were a skilled racer and you were referring to "race shape", then three months off would negate a fair amount of "race shape" training. However if you're talking about general fitness, you'll be back in shape in no time.
I'm hoping the injury you obtained wasn't because of "over-doing" your training. If it was, it's important you don't go back to what it was that hurt you.
Good luck!
I just tried a workout today just to see the level of fitness I am at the gears I used to spin now seem much harder .. can hardly spin them for long ... sux ... is it true that strength drops very fast? If it drops fast.. does it mean it can be gained fast too?
Aeri,
apologies, very busy at the moment and haven't had time to answer your query yet! here's a link to a paper on the subject http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...ve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=11474330
basically, you lose fitness very fast, detraining is cruel :-(. however, the upside is, you'll most likely get back to where you were previously at a faster rate than you did originally.
ric
apologies, very busy at the moment and haven't had time to answer your query yet! here's a link to a paper on the subject http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...ve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=11474330
basically, you lose fitness very fast, detraining is cruel :-(. however, the upside is, you'll most likely get back to where you were previously at a faster rate than you did originally.
ric
there is a caveat on regaining fitness faster than you did originally: it depends on whether you retrain properly or not.ric_stern/RST said:
It's back to base to start with, then back into a structured program. You should have enough experience to know what to look for (in terms of overdoing things), so take it easy. If you start out too hard you won't make the gains you want.
You can make life easier for yourself by re-evaluating your goals. If you have a clear focus on where you want to be long term it will take the edge off "the loss".
Good luck, and enjoy your riding.
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