The Science Behind Getting Out of Shape

Getting out of shape doesn't happen overnight. It is a gradual process that usually has four driving factors. Those four driving factors are inactivity, a poor diet, time restraints and stress. Stress by itself doesn't necessarily drive someone out of shape, but it can lead to lessened activity and poor eating habits.

Getting a new job, having children, having to take care of a sick family member, getting a second job or being sick or getting injured yourself, can all make it seem that you have to put exercise on the back burner. With many people, exercise ends up just staying on that back burner.

If you have spent years getting into top physical shape, you don't want to see it all disappear.

Measurable losses in fitness can occur prior to a drastic change in your physical appearance. Subtle changes start in less than two weeks!

On the other hand, when you start exercising, the benefits of exercise can easily begin within that same two week timeframe.

After just a few strength-training sessions, neuromuscular adaptations can occur. Your brain synchs with your muscles, so that you can begin to use them more efficiently. After doing rigorous exercise for just over a week, you will have improvement in your blood quality, muscle mass and muscle strength. Those gains will quickly disappear if you quit at that point.

Skipping Workouts for Two Weeks May Be Detrimental to Your Fitness Level:

Your body does need rest and recovery time after workouts. The more intense the workouts, the longer recovery time is needed. Simple movement exercises, such as walking, do not need any recovery time to speak of and they can be done on a daily basis. Some high intensity workouts, may need a week to fully recover from.

If you push yourself too hard and too fast, you may end up breaking down your body and doing more harm than good. A great way to tell if you are pushing yourself too hard, is to see if your strength and/or endurance start to decline. Another way is if you are getting a lot of overuse type injuries, such as pulled muscles or shin splints.

That being said, after two weeks of rest, your body begins to get out of shape. A study in the Journal of Applied Physiology suggested that skipping workouts for just two weeks can significantly reduce your cardiovascular fitness, lean muscle mass and insulin sensitivity. After about 10 days to two weeks, your VO2 max, a measure of cardiovascular endurance, will start to drop and continue doing so at a rate of 0.5%/day. In one study, after just 12 days without exercise, VO2 max dropped by 7%, while blood enzymes associated with endurance performance dropped by 50%!

After four weeks of inactivity, among endurance cyclists, there was a 20% decrease in VO2 max, but with trained athletes, they can regain this VO2 max loss quickly.

The Older You Get, the Faster Your Muscles Atrophy:

The older you get, the faster your muscles atrophy if you're not regularly engaging in exercise. You will also take longer to regain that loss.

When comparing 20- to 30-year-olds with 65- to 75-year-olds, the older group lost strength nearly twice as fast during six months of inactivity.

If you are inactive, you should consult your physician prior to starting any exercise program.

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