I am opening this topic because i think most of us athletes that are obsessed with numbers, form and structured training handle their training very strictly. Knowing that i am one of them and having recently nagging pain in the right knee i was curious how much time until you loose fitness ?
Planing to skip one workout in my middle of my rest week [total 4 days off] because the next week is my last of my SS4 plan. My question for everyone is how much time did you take off in the past and did you noticed huge fitness loss. There was some study that you are starting to lose fitness and form after 7 days of doing couch potato regime.
The thought of loosing form is 100% the biggest concern athletes have with taking an extra recovery day or having to take off for injury. The exact point at which each athletes will “lose” fitness will totally vary on the athlete (where they are in training and so on) and then the next thing is what training system do you lose first. BUT almost always athletes who have put in hard work actually lose less then they think they will.
Using injury as an example it’s always better to give it time early rather then ignoring it and letting it become a big big deal. So this both applies to giving injuries rest days, and going and seeing a PT. I see it all the time that athletes wait too long before seeing a PT and at that point the solution is total time off. Cyclists notoriously develop issues with overuse injuries because our motion is very repetitive and we tend to over dominate with our quads/hamstring and so on, then find ourselves in a super tight ball and then face consequences of most commonly knee/back issues. So my point here is sometimes total time off can be avoided by doing our do diligence as athletes early on. (easier said then done)
One other point on time off. If you do end up taking time off (so after your 4 days off) give yourself time to ease back in. This is a great time to use your TSB as a tool. When you come back you will likely be sitting at a decently positive TSB, give that some time to balance back out before expecting to feel like yourself again. Freshness for an athlete that has a decent fitness built up can often times lead the HR being high and super jumpy in a bad way. This is an example of how expectations can change everything. It might take a little while to feel like yourself again, but thats not always because you lost fitness.
Wen’t on some tangents here ha but some food for thought.
Thanks a lot coach Isaiah for your touching this sensitive topic. I haven’t thought about watching my TSB when i will return to my training, good trick. Honestly i put 12 weeks of Sweet Spot efforts and now when knee injury strikes i just hope won’t lose too much fitness and the work i did when i will be resting like a week maybe.
What i have noticed with the years, depending on your base fitness level you won’t lose too much if you have many years under your belt of training. But also depends on how much rest you will have of the bike.
I have read somewhere that detraining beings to occur after 3-5 days of no activity, though any losses at this stage are very small. It won’t start earlier as your body is busy processing the training you have done, repairing muscle damage.
Anyway, thanks for the input, very much appreciated !
