24K-Production/Getty Images Falling off track from your workout routine is inevitable. Life happens. You go on a trip.
You sprain your ankle or start a new job. Then, once you find the time to resume training, you feel weak and out of breath. It can seem like all your good work has been for nothing.
But that isn’t the case. Although we do lose fitness shockingly fast, it turns out that we don’t simply go back to square one. What’s more, even when circumstances keep you from your regular routine, there are various things you can do to minimise the losses.
Why strength training may be the best thing you can do for your health Building muscle reduces the risk of cancer and stroke, boosts brainpower, burns through calories and more – it might even be better for you than cardio How rapidly fitness declines depends on what aspect of it you consider. The news is worst when it comes to aerobic fitness. Evidence suggests that VO2 max, the maximum rate at which the body can absorb oxygen, drops significantly after a , largely due to a roughly 10 per cent decrease in the amount of blood your heart can pump with each beat.
Some changes occur even sooner. For instance, blood volume decreases after two days of rest. After a month, we have fewer capillaries delivering oxygen to our muscles too, possibly due to changes in levels of a .
In a from June, at the Norwegian School of Sports Sciences and his colleagues found...
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