When do you get out of shape

We’re firm believers in cutting yourself some slack and taking time off from exercise when you need to. But we also know how easily three days off can snowball into six, then 10. Before you know it, you’re asking that question we’ve all asked: How long does it take to lose my fitness

First, it’s important to remember that taking time off now and again is a good thing — exercise inflicts a degree of stress on the body, and any good workout programme includes a heck of a lot of rest days, especially if the exercise is very intense. And there’s a benefit to both “active recovery” and complete rest. That said, “use it or lose it” is pretty much the rule. But exactly how much fitness you’ll “lose” depends on the length of your break and how fit you were. IF YOU EXERCISE REGULARlY It’s a lot easier to bounce back from time off if you’re someone who exercises five or six times a week, or if you’ve been exercising for a while. If you’ve been working out several times a week for more than a year, your muscle memory is solid. In fact, with that strong of an exercise habit, scientists are quite willing to drop you in the “athlete” category. For athletes, your fitness can deteriorate at different rates depending on whether you’re looking at strength or cardiovascular losses.

STRENGTH LOSS For most people, strength loss occurs after about two-and-a-half to three weeks of inactivity, says Molly Galbraith, a strength and conditioning specialist and co-founder of Girls Gone Strong. But it depends on why you take the break.

“If you are sick, your body is overstressed, so you’ll start to lose strength after two to three weeks,” she says. “If you’re not sick, and especially if you’re able to get in some movement and light exercise, you can probably take three, four, even five weeks off without significant strength loss.”

Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise published a review of several studies on the subject that looked at runners, rowers, and power athletes. For all of these groups, muscular strength fibers appear not to change, even after a month of inactivity. But here’s the kicker: While general strength doesn’t change much in that period, specialised, sport-specific muscle fibers start to change in as little as two weeks without a workout . For example, endurance athletes lose a significant amount of the extra slow-twitch muscle fibers that they worked so hard to accumulate and the same thing happens for the power athletes and their hard-earned fast-twitch muscle fibers.

The body holds onto strength for as long as it can, but skills that are very specialised for certain sports will decline faster.

CARDIO LOSS So what about all the cardio lovers out there who are more concerned with the strength of their heart and lungs Sadly, we lose this kind of conditioning a little more quickly than we lose strength. One study of endurance cyclists found that four weeks of inactivity resulted in a 20 percent decrease of their VO2 max, which measures a person’s maximum capacity to take in, transport, and use oxygen during exercise.

But keep your chin up. While your cardio conditioning does fall faster than your strength, it’s easier to regain, Galbraith says.