How Long Will It Take to Get Back in Shape After a Pandemic?
So, you finally headed back to the gym after a while. Whether you’re keeping fit with home workouts or forgetting to exercise altogether, you’ll have plenty to do when you get back to the gym.
Even if you feel weak and unloaded, you get that back strength and fitness. Compared to someone who has never exercised, your experience gives you a huge advantage that will help you get back in shape. Do not forget your first victory: that you even returned. And if you’re having trouble getting back into the game after a workout break, check out our 5-step guide to getting back to the gym :
- Don’t berate yourself.
- Estimate your losses.
- Be grateful for how far you’ve come.
- Make a plan.
- Follow this plan.
Let’s take a look under the hood of this plan. We spoke with Georgia State University physiologist Walter Thompson to find out what is happening to your body during this time and what you can expect when you get back into the saddle. The good news is that even if you don’t feel like it right now, you will soon return to your stronger, faster self – if you are careful to avoid injury.
How much did the fitness break cost me?
Many body systems change during exercise and may return to normal when you become sedentary again. The amount of blood in your body, which increases when you are in good shape, is one of the first things to reduce. Runners use a metric called VO2max , which roughly corresponds to how quickly you detect that you are out of breath as a measure of fitness.
Even after a two-week break, the runner’s VO2max will start to drop and you will choke earlier than before. According to one classic study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, after two months, you will have lost about 15 percent of that amount. If you were an athlete for many years, even after three months you would still be better than someone who has never exercised. But thisdoes not apply to new achievements , for example, if you completed the program “from the couch to 5 km” and then immediately returned to the couch. You will have to start over.
Strength doesn’t drop that fast. After a month, you will still have most of your strength and your “power” (this is your strength in fast movements, such as your ability to do squats and jumps). After a year, you may still have about half of the strength that you initially acquired .
Some other things stay even longer. The extra capillaries you’ve grown to supply blood to your muscles won’t go away after a year . Your heart will still be strong and your lungs will still have more capacity than before you started exercising.
As for how much you have lost your fitness, there is no formula that will tell you exactly; These numbers are only guidelines based on the experiences of participants in several studies. So, to summarize:
- If you take a break for a few weeks: You will have a slight dent in cardio fitness and you will hardly lose your strength. You will be back to normal pretty quickly.
- If you took a year off (but were in good shape before): You will lose at least 15 percent of your cardio training and about half of your strength. It will probably take you several months to get back to where you were.
- If you’ve taken many years of vacation (say you were a college athlete during the Clinton presidency): Let’s say you ‘re starting from scratch. You may be able to make some progress faster than if you were a real beginner, but let it be a pleasant surprise.
Before you plan your return, it’s important to understand why you took this hiatus and what happened during that time. The global life-changing pandemic is probably the reason most people read this, but gym breaks happen for a variety of reasons.
For example, if you quit your job because of an injury, you need to completely eliminate that injury. If not, now is a good time to visit a doctor. Find out what the problem is and correct it, and see a physical therapist to correct any muscle imbalance or weakness that was the cause or result of the injury. If you’ve gained weight while on vacation, the extra pounds can make it harder to run in the old days or do the same number of pull-ups that you did before.
This is also a good time to reality check anything that might interfere with your routine. If you’ve taken parental leave, are you getting enough sleep now? Do you have someone to watch your child while you exercise? If you’ve been overwhelmed with work, have you figured out how to bring back that elusive work-life balance ? If you stopped exercising because you got bored, have you thought about how to make your workout more fun, or have you found better ways to motivate yourself? Once you figure out what happened and why things will be different this time, you are ready to start.
How quickly can I get it back?
If your break was only a few weeks long, you may need to relax for only a few sessions before returning to work.
What if you have had a break for a year or more? Thompson has some good news for people in a similar position:
I usually say that you are taking a year off. It won’t take a year to get back to where you were, but you are no longer where you were a year ago. So cut it down a bit, I usually say about a third to half of the weight you lifted, and then take a week or two to get back to your normal routine. There will be adaptation, and it will be pretty fast.
This does not mean that you will raise your old personal records in a week or two, but you will succeed. The real time frame, Thompson said, is to return to normal in about two months. This applies to both strength and cardio.
So if you typically bench press 200 pounds, don’t expect to return much more than 100 pounds on the first day. If you’ve just gotten to full push-ups, you may need to go back to your modified versions .
In an endurance sport like running, you still want to lower your training intensity. Thompson suggests walking first and then jogging at intervals until you can complete the workout at the same speed. The exact distance does not matter. Runners love to get hung up on the run and are often cited as the 10 percent ideal increase from week to week . However, this is just a rule of thumb, and without it , progress can be made . Thompson agrees that this is arbitrary, writing in an email: “There is no scientific (or medical) evidence for the 10 percent rule.”
After two months, if you don’t return to where you were, your training program may need to change, especially if you’ve done what you’ve always done but your goals have changed. Find a good coach and make sure your program is challenging enough to meet your new goals.
What should I do the next time I have a fitness break?
Life happens. Even if you swear you’ll never take a break again, one day you will drive, or get hurt, or take on an exciting new project that eats up all your free time. Maybe if we’re very unlucky, cases will sprout and gyms will close again.
The key rule is not to stop completely . Even if you can’t exercise regularly, find what you can do. Stationary bikes and treadmills are comfortable in bad weather, and Thompson recommends rowing machines for changing pace (one seems to be tucked away in the corner of every gym). Other options might include quick workouts (if time is your problem) or exercises that you can do at home or in a hotel if access to equipment or open spaces is an issue.
These mini workouts help because you can maintain most of your aerobic fitness with short, intense workouts . Take a 60-minute run that you might otherwise have done and cut it down to a 20-minute version of your regular routine, speed work, and everything else . The same applies to strength training. You can cut back to one workout per week if you continue to work as hard as before. If you want to work on balance , there are exercises that hone that, too.
If you can do mini-exercises during your break, you will be in much better shape when you get back to the gym. That way, you won’t waste the hard-earned fitness you are building now.
This story was originally published in January 2016 and was updated on May 17, 2021 with additional information and alignment with Lifehacker’s style guidelines.