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What to do if you missed a workout?! Is it necessary to make up for lost time by inserting missed exercises into the program of subsequent days? Or can he continue training as usual?
Skipping a workout is not good, because... if we are talking about bodybuilding, where the goal is to build muscle, the athlete (s) uses in his training the BASIC PRINCIPLE, without which muscle growth is in principle impossible, this is the so-called. PROGRESSION OF LOAD.
Read more about this principle in the main article: “What is load progression.”
This is the first important point. The second important nuance is that this load progression MUST OCCUR DURING SUPERCOMPENSATION!
For those who don’t know, supercompensation is a growth phase. It occurs in a certain time period, and if the progression of the load does not occur at this very DEFINITE TIME OF SUPERCOMPENSATION, then there will be no muscle growth either. Do you understand?
This is why skipping a workout is not good, because... if you train a little earlier, there will be no muscle growth, because there is not enough time for supercompensation to manifest; if you train too late (after supercompensation) (this is our case, due to skipping a workout), again there will be no muscle growth, because PHASE LOST. Do you understand? This is why it is so important that the progression (think WORKOUT) is ON TIME (at the RIGHT TIME)!
In other words, by skipping training for a certain muscle group (well, for example, the deltoids), you are missing the most favorable phase of supercompensation, which will subsequently negatively affect the development (growth) of this muscle group.
That's why skipping workouts is a no-no (ideally, at least). But, I don’t argue, there are different situations in life, blockages at work, school, illness, injury, in short, the list can be continued indefinitely, that’s not the point. Anyone can skip a training session, and, alas, nothing can be done about it. Although many may disagree with this)):
harshly)))
Photo for those who miss training because of LAZINESS, EXCUSES, etc. bullshit)). Although, I'm sure it won't help)) because... Nothing will help such people (looking for motivation) at all, and most likely they will remain losers. No, but what?! Did you think I would motivate you? Why do I need you)) stay in the ass.
In general, remember: absences (if anything) should not be systematic and long-lasting.
How quickly experienced athletes lose shape
It is much easier to regain lost levels of fitness if you have been training regularly for a long time. Simply put, if you've been consistently training 3-4 times a week for over a year, your muscle memory and endurance will be better than that of a beginner.
It is also important to emphasize that loss of fitness can worsen at different rates depending on what type of training you do - strength training or cardio.
Loss of strength
Most experienced athletes begin to lose strength after 2-3 weeks of stopping training, but this also depends on the conditions in which the body is located during the break. If you are sick and your body is under stress, you will begin to lose strength after 2-3 weeks. If you are healthy and move enough, a significant loss of strength indicators will begin to be felt only after the 4th week.
In 2001, the journal Medicine in Science and Exercise, published by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), published a review of several studies that examined the extent to which taking breaks from training affected the strength performance of runners, rowers, and strength athletes. All groups of trainees showed a minimal decrease in strength indicators even after the onset of the 4th week without training.
However, the following feature was noticed: while the overall strength indicators practically did not decrease, specific muscle fibers of the athletes began to noticeably lose strength. In endurance athletes, most of the “slow” muscle fibers (those responsible for high repetitions) have lost significant strength. In strength athletes, the same changes were observed in type II fibers (responsible for strength).
Loss of aerobic capacity
According to sports medicine expert Elizabeth Quinn, the loss of aerobic capacity occurs quite quickly in experienced athletes. The specialist mentions a study in which experienced athletes, after a year of training, stopped training completely for 3 months. As a result, scientists found that over 3 months, athletes’ endurance levels decreased by as much as 50%.
Also in 1985, scientists from Denmark conducted an experiment in which 9 experienced athletes training in an aerobic style participated. Before the experiment, participants allocated 6 to 10 hours per week to endurance training. During the trial period, their training was reduced to one high-intensity 35-minute session per week. After 4 weeks, the athletes' endurance levels decreased by 21%.
But don't get discouraged, because as strength and conditioning specialist Molly Galbraith says, although endurance levels drop more than strength, experienced athletes return to their previous levels faster.
What to do when you miss training?
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The training plan is very good. This disciplines you, allows you to plan your preparation, monitor your current readiness, and helps you prepare for competitions. But often moments arise that do not fit into the pre-drawn plan. This is especially true for amateurs. We may miss a planned workout due to work pressure, a common cold, business travel, minor injuries, and other things.
I’m sure everyone knows the feeling of “guilt over missing training.”
What to do in this case? How to adjust the training plan if we missed training? Sometimes nothing can be done and we are forced to miss a workout or several training days. Here are some tips on how to return to your normal training rhythm without noticeable losses:
1. There is no need to immediately try to catch up.
We should not try to increase the volume in hours or kilometers if we missed a workout.
There is no need to lengthen the warm-up or cool-down, or add additional workouts during fasting days or rest days to compensate for losses. This can lead to overtraining and injury. Condensing your training schedule by adding missed workouts will shorten your recovery time. This leads to layering of fatigue and loss of freshness when it comes to doing hard work.
This is a vicious circle that ultimately leads to loss of performance. 2. There is no need to be too upset about missed workouts. Don't make a tragedy out of this.
Why are we so afraid of missed workouts?
Why do we think that a missed workout can ruin all the months of work? When missing several days of training, no significant decrease in performance was observed. Even if we missed 10-14 days (for those who train regularly), the loss of performance will be 3-4%. There is no need to worry if we are forced to miss a few days due to a business trip or illness.
The body will quickly restore what was lost after returning to a normal training regimen. 3. Don't let missed workouts reduce our motivation.
Many athletes have difficulty returning to their normal training routine after several days of absence.
There is a feeling of loss of speed and muscle stiffness. This puts a lot of pressure on the psyche. But this is normal and goes away quickly if you follow your training plan. Don't let a few missed days ruin all the work we've done. In order to make it easier to tolerate absences from training, think in advance about what you can use as an alternative, what qualities you can work on additionally during this time of “forced” absence. Create several alternative workout options.
All this will help reduce psychological stress and maintain motivation in the training process. What if we missed several training days? What is the best way to return to your previous training regimen?
Of course, the level of training, duration of sports, the severity of illnesses or injuries affect the time of optimal return to the previous level of performance. Here are some tips:
1-5 missed training days.
If no more than 5 days have been missed, then we can say with confidence that our level of readiness has remained virtually unchanged and our body will return to its usual training regimen very quickly.
There is no need to plan heavy training immediately after returning. We plan 2-3 days of light work at a level of 80-90 from the level of standard light training. We include several short intervals to stimulate the central nervous system and prepare the muscular system for more difficult work. After these 2-3 refreshing days, you can safely return to our standard training regimen, including heavy training. If we are returning to the training process after illness, give the body a few more days of work at a reduced intensity.
6-10 missed training days.
In this case, we lose the general level of performance and neuromuscular coordination in special performance.
The level of reduction is not yet critical. But this does mean that you need to be more careful when planning hard workouts. We begin to get involved for at least 3 days, performing training at a level of 60-70 percent of the level of standard light training. And then we increase the load by 10-15% every subsequent day. We include several short intervals to stimulate the central nervous system and prepare the muscular system to increase the tone of the muscular system.
After this, you can return to standard training work, but we try to avoid hard, interval work, replacing it with a variable type of fartlek or natural intervals. 10-15 missed training days.
In this case, it will take us about 2 weeks to return to our previous level of training.
We also begin to get involved for at least 3 days, performing training at a level of 60-70 percent of the level of standard light training. And then we increase the load by 10-15% every subsequent day. We try to train this easy for 2 weeks before returning to our normal training regimen.
Do I need to do extra workouts that I missed?
Do I need to do this or can I immediately follow the training plan after retraction?
The answer depends on the situation. If we are in the final stage of preparation for the main competitions and we still have 8-10 weeks left, then we need to complete the missed training aimed at increasing special performance. This should be done because the load in these workouts increases as you move towards the main competitions, and if after retraction you immediately work according to the plan, then the level of special load according to the plan may be too high and adaptation failure may occur. If this is the preparatory period and the start is still very far away, then you can safely switch to the training plan, not paying attention to the missed workouts.
Conclusions:
Naturally, it is better not to skip training and follow the training plan.
But anything can happen in life. Everyone sets their own priorities. It is important not to make a tragedy about missed workouts, but to prepare alternative training options for yourself in advance. Possible using available means in a given place at a given time.
You can call them “hiking” or “home” options. As you wish. This will help you not lose physical shape, maintain psychological strength and motivation, and reduce the time to return to your normal training regimen. References: J. Gaudette (2014).
How quickly beginners lose shape
If you have just recently entered the world of fitness and for some reason are forced to take a break from training, you should not extend this period for a long time. The main key to achieving any fitness goals is consistency and regularity of training, and here it is very important not to lose momentum too early.
Loss of strength
The strength indicators of beginners are better preserved and recover faster after a break in training compared to athletes. And this is logical: the further a person goes from the usual level in his sports development, the more difficult it is for him to maintain himself at this high level, and accordingly, the losses in training are higher for any reason. And vice versa – beginners do not have much to lose compared to athletes. And science confirms this.
Let us turn to an interesting study conducted by Japanese scientists in 2011. During their experiment, 15 novices were divided into 2 groups. Both groups performed flat bench presses at a high level of intensity. At the same time, the first group trained for 15 weeks in a row, and the second, after 6 weeks of training, took a 3-week break and resumed training over the next 5 weeks. After 15 weeks, the scientists compared the results and found that in the end both groups of subjects had identical strength indicators.
Loss of aerobic performance
However, with aerobic indicators everything is exactly the opposite. There is quite a bit of research on this topic, but we found the following. According to the same Elizabeth Quinn, beginners lose their aerobic performance much faster than experienced athletes. The specialist refers to an experiment in which beginners leading a sedentary lifestyle trained on exercise bikes for 2 months.
After 8 weeks, the subjects showed significant improvements in the functioning of the cardiovascular system, and their aerobic performance also increased significantly. But as soon as the subjects took a 2-month break, the scientists found that all improvements were lost. As a result, the subjects completely returned to the level of aerobic capacity that they had before the start of training.
If several classes
When you haven't been to the gym for a week, you should start with the workout you finished with. In our example, it will look like this: the last workout was on the chest muscles, and that’s where we’ll start. Why is that? All for the same reason, observing the load-rest cycle. The muscles that were used during the extreme training just had time to gain strength during the missed week.
By and large, they don’t care that you didn’t study. The cyclicity of their load was not disrupted. As for the future program, we leave it unchanged. But you must be prepared for the fact that the planned increase in load does not work out, then the weights will need to be repeated.
How to slow down your loss of fitness
Whether you've taken a planned break from training or are due to health issues, there are ways to help slow the loss of your fitness.
- Do light cardio
If your physical condition allows, do several light runs per week. This will help you slow down the loss of your aerobic performance.
- Include strength training
There can be many reasons for stopping strength training, including injury. However, if the injury is localized, for example, to the ankle or wrist, it is not necessary to use your injury as an excuse. For example, nothing prevents you from doing crunches with an injured wrist or swimming a short distance in freestyle with a minor finger injury.
If you have a really serious injury or you have a cold and are lying in bed with a high temperature, in this case you need to completely abstain from any exercise.
- Eat right
Proper nutrition during the training break will help slow down the loss of muscle mass and not become covered in a layer of fat. Eat enough protein and choose healthy sources of carbohydrates and fats. Also, during the period of rest from training, it is important to follow the principle of rational nutrition, in which the amount of energy received should be equal to the amount expended.
Reasons not to skip exercise when gaining weight
During mass training, each missed session will also have its consequences.
Everyone knows that after intense training, the body will need a couple of days to recover. After a couple of days, the supercompensation stage begins, which is the most effective for gaining muscle mass. The duration of this phase, as a rule, ranges from 2 to 4 days. This is the time when muscles become stronger and more resilient. Thus, after training and subsequent recovery for 1 or 2 days, the next session should fall into the supercompensation period. During this period, your work on any of the muscle groups will be most effective. It should be noted that mass-gaining training should be done separately. To put it simply, each muscle group should be worked on a certain day. Let's say you have a chest and triceps workout planned for Monday, on Wednesday all your attention will be paid to your back and biceps, and on Friday you will work on your leg muscles and shoulder girdle. This is an approximate scheme that allows you to achieve a great effect in gaining weight and provides the body with enough time to recover.
If all training is carried out according to a stable schedule, then the body adapts, which increases efficiency. After the training, there is rest and again a training session during the period of supercompensation, and this circle continues. If you skip a training session for any muscle group, you may miss the period of supercompensation, which will have a very negative impact on the effectiveness of your training process.
CONCLUSION
In fact, fitness is not lost that quickly, and if you are an experienced athlete , you have little reason to worry. In general, the more experienced an athlete, the easier it is for him to regain his level of strength thanks to muscle memory, and the slower his aerobic abilities are lost, which he can restore relatively quickly.
For beginners , everything is a little different. While they don't have to worry about temporary loss of strength as they bounce back quickly when training resumes, aerobic performance is a different story. But that’s why they are beginners, because their aerobic abilities are not so well developed that they are afraid of losing them.
Sources:
o How long does it actually take to get out of shape, greatlist.com.
o How fast do I lose fitness if I stop exercising, about.com.
o Madsen K., Pedersen PK, Effects of detraining on endurance capacity and metabolic changes during prolonged exhaustive exercise, Department of Physical Education, Odense University.
o Ogasawara R., Yasuda T., Effects of periodic and continued resistance training on muscle CSA and strength in previously untrained men, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo.
o Mujika I., Padilla S., Cardiorespiratory and metabolic characteristics of detraining in humans, Department of Investigación y Desarrollo, Athletic Club de Bilbao, Spain.
