In sports science, it is considered that a long break in training leads to the so-called fatigue. The adaptive capacity of the body is reduced, and the person is faced with the problems of loss of strength and endurance indicators, returning to training again. It is possible to avoid loss of fitness with the help of less frequent and hard training, but this does not work in all cases.
What can be considered a break in training
In terms of power load, breaks of a length of one month are investigated. Shorter breaks can be considered as holiday cycles. For aerobic training, breaks of 1 week are considered essential for loss of fitness.
A break in training affects the state of elite athletes and ordinary fitness enthusiasts in different ways. There is also a situation where a break caused by injury or overtraining, or just some life circumstances.
Breaks in training for weightlifters
Studies show that the power indicators of weightlifters fall slightly during the month break. The figures in the squat fell by only 10% among the group of subjects and recovered fairly quickly. In powerlifting there is a similar situation.
Interestingly, the levels of anabolic hormones (testosterone and somatotropin) only increased during the break, but the level of cortisol fell. This indicates a general anabolic background in the body. But the cross section of muscle fibers (mainly “fast”) working in weightlifting still decreased. This led researchers to believe that inspiration is preserved, but hypertrophy is possible only with the direct effect of an electrical impulse on a muscle.
At the same time, artificial induction of spraininess in powerlifters leads to the growth of “slow” muscle fibers as a percentage of the total number of muscles. This justifies the use of off-season endurance cycles in this sport.
In terms of speeding up recovery from hard training, it is often used to stop training for a certain short period of time, for example, a week or 10 days. This helps to restore hormonal levels, but does not affect sportsmanship or the muscle mass of an athlete.
In terms of maintaining and maintaining muscle mass, a promising direction is the use of EMC (electromyostimulation) to recover athletes after injuries. Manipulation contributes to the preservation of muscle mass, despite the lack of opportunities to train.
In addition, scientists investigated the decline in indicators in eccentric and concentric muscle strength, and it was found that training with “negative” repetitions protect against loss of muscle mass better than normal.
Power indices fall more slowly than muscle mass, since sportsmanship plays a large role in their manifestation. Muscle mass is lost slightly in those athletes who can be attributed to a high level of training.
It is known that the use of anabolic steroids is associated with the “rollback effect” at the end of the course. When the course is completed, many athletes simply reduce the intensity of their workouts. This is the true reason that muscle mass is significantly reduced. By itself, the end of the course causes only a slight drop in muscle mass.
Muscle memory
In the course of scientific research, they also found out that the so-called “muscular memory” with detraining is a reality, and not a myth. The reason for this phenomenon is the preservation of the innervation of muscle fibers, typical of a well-trained person. It is this factor that causes a return to physical activity in a trained person to cause faster muscle growth.
Detrenia in beginners
Studies show that detraining among beginners is manifested by a slight drop in strength indicators. The same can be said about their muscle mass.
Aerobic exercise
But the decline in performance in the training of predominantly aerobic nature occurs quickly. During the whole 1 week they fall, and in a month the athlete may face the fact that the results of the one-year training have come to naught. Aerobic detraining can be overcome with easy cross-training, but for high-level athletes it works worse than for beginners and intermediate athletes.