Consistent commitment to exercise training results in substantial health and fitness benefits. These benefits associated with long term exercise training include increased cardiorespiratory function and efficiency, decreased percent body fat, increased muscle strength and endurance, and enhanced flexibility.
An important thing to remember is that the amount of benefit that a person experiences as a result of an exercise training program is dependent on factors such as initial fitness level, genetic potential, and others. Perhaps, however, the most important factor influencing the gains in fitness experienced with exercise training is the exercise dosage. The exercise training dosage is comprised of three variables: intensity, frequency, and duration. All three can be manipulated during the course of a training program in an attempt to produce optimal gains in fitness. If you are not sure how to go about doing this, it is a great idea to hire a personal trainer to walk you through this process. How the exercise dosage is manipulated throughout the course of a training program has a profound influence on exercise training outcomes and also may influence long-term adherence to exercise training. This article will discuss the research literature that has investigated the exercise dosage necessary to maintain fitness gains of cardiovascular efficiency, muscle strength, and flexibility and how the findings of this research may relate to enhancing adherence to exercise training programs.
There is little argument that when exercise training is stopped or significantly reduced, training gains related to cardiorespiratory and muscular strength are reversed to varying degrees over time (2, 6, 14). Many factors influence the degree and rate of change in fitness, including the fitness level when de-training began (those with higher fitness levels decline less rapidly); age; how long and how intensely the person had been training (those who have trained longer and more intensely decline less rapidly); the level of daily habitual activity; and genetic disposition (1, 7). Reversal of fitness gains as a result of detraining occurs as soon as 1 to 2 weeks after exercise training stops, whereas continuing to exercise at a reduced volume may slow the loss of these changes(3, 12, 13). The fact that a reduced volume of training can reduce the effect of the loss of fitness gains begs the question: how much can a person reduce his or her trianing and still maintain the gains that have been made? Several research studies have manipulated the componenets of the exercise dosage in an attempt to address this question.
CONCERNING AEROBIC POWER
In a series of elegantly controlled experiments, Hickson and associates (9-11) found that if the intensity of training remained unchanged, aerobic power was maintained for up to 15 weeks even when frequency and duration of training were reduced by as much as two thirds. In converse, when frequency and duration of training remained constant and the intensity of the training was reduced by one third or two thirds, then aerobic power was significantly reduced. Thus, it appears that to maintain gains related to aerobic power, intensity is the key variable of the dosage.
CONCERNING MUSCULAR STRENGTH
In findings similar to those associated with the maintenance of aerobic power, Fatouros and colleagues (4, 5) demonstrated that muscular strength may be maintained by as little as a single session per week of moderate to hard intensity training (equivalent to at least 60% of a person’s one-repetition maximum lift).
CONCERNING FLEXIBILITY
Although few studies have investigated the impact of de-training on flexibility, current data indicate that improvements in joint range of motion reverse within 4-8 weeks of cessation of stretching (5, 15). There is limited research, however, on the effets of reducing the frequency or duration of stretching exercise, although it has been demonstrated that people who reduced participation in stretching exercise from daily to 2 to 3 days per week maintained joint range of motion (5, 15).
In summary, research findings support the conclusion that as long as the intensity of training is maintained, a reduced volume of exercise dosage through reductions in duration and/or frequency will likely not result in a loss of fitness gains. This concept of reducing the volume of exercise while maintaining the intensity of training at critical times during the exercise program may allow for recovery and maintaining enthusiasm for exercise training, both of which are variables important to long term exercise adherence. (Please click on the link below to view the example Table).
TABLE: EXAMPLES OF CHANGE IN EXERCISE TO MAINTAIN FITNESS
REFERENCE: Ann M. Swank, Ph.D.,”Maintaining Your Fitness Gains When Less Is Really More”, ACSM’s Health and Fitness Journal, Vol. 16, Number 4, July/August 2012:page 35-36.
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