As more and more people are chose our Remote Coaching Program this past year, we have found that when talking about goals, there is a very common theme – people just want to keep the fitness level they had before social isolation started almost a year ago.
There is a fair amount of research on this stuff out there but none of it is complete and most of it is done in isolation of true full body fitness. We know enough to make some pretty solid educated guesses though.
First the bad news: If you have sat around at home and did no physical activity for the last few months, you absolutely will have lost fitness in every single measurable domain (and many that are not measurable, including mental health). That is no good!
Now the much better news: Consistently doing anything at all will slow the decline drastically, and quite possibly arrest the decline in many areas. Research tells us that cardio capacity (taking in oxygen and getting rid of carbon dioxide) is the first to go. It turns out that maintaining all of that surface area in our lungs used in the gas exchange process is expensive. If you don’t use it, you lose it.
The “Use it or Lose it” is absolutely a maxim the body lives by. This bad news is somewhat mitigated by the fact that cardio is quick to come back once you start exercising regularly again. Yeah! Apparently, getting oxygen in and carbon dioxide out is kind of important to survival! So, that means once you get started again, you can expect your body to get back into shape again fairly quickly.
We also know from research that the body will start to reclaim (catabolize) muscle after about 16 days of the muscle not being used. This starts fairly innocuously, the body will remove damaged muscle fibers first, reclaiming them for nutrients and reducing the caloric load needed to maintain our resting metabolism. (Which isn’t a bad thing at all!) Muscle is expensive, very expensive (this is why maintaining muscle is SO amazing for losing fat). As the lack of use continues the body will reclaim more and more of the muscle, again to save energy.
That was quite a bit of science, but what does it mean for us right now? It means that the more you do now, the longer you will delay your fitness from declining (and stay mentally healthy to well!) And if you have been sedentary the last few months, don’t fear – all you have to do is get back into the gym consistently again and you will see the benefits!
Whether working out at home or coming to the gym for group classes, this is a great time to focus on simple workouts with minimal equipment and really pay attention to your movement patterns. Do you struggle with your squat? Take this time to fix it when you are not distracted by heavy weights! Poor shoulder mobility? Focus on opening up your shoulder girdle with very light or no weights! This is the time to work on deficiencies and restrictions we might overlook during busier times.
We realize that being isolated has been really tough – mentally and physically. Our current remote workouts are programmed so that people can workout more days each week without feeling overly sore and to avoid over-training. Our in person classes at the gym are geared to getting that strength and cardio back.
And in keeping with the above way of thinking, we are putting out workouts with more core work, mobility, and movement prep to give everyone at home or in the gym the absolute best chance to come out of this time better than when this all started!