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Handling Disruptions to your Training Routine
Humans are creatures of habit and once we have a good daily routine, we like to keep it, making us feel comfortable and safe. But there’s always abut - life happens, we’ve all been there and experienced changes in our life (new job, moving, starting a family, illness/injury) and subsequently our daily routine whether we like it or not, shifts. One of the first things to go when we are under pressure and trying to adapt to disruptions is our training routine. It is definitely frustrating when this happens, and it can be hard to find our happy training balance again. But there is some good news when we turn to science.
What does Science say?
It's not all doom and gloom if we stop regular training while adapting to life changes. Findings from arecent study have found “that exercise intensity seems to be the key variable for maintaining physical performance over time, despite relatively large reductions in exercise frequency and volume”. In short you can still retain your cardiovascular fitness if you can maintain your volume and intensity during your workouts, provided you can make 2 training sessions a week.
It's even better news if you are wanting to maintain your strength, the same research has found this can be retained with “as little as one workout per peek and with volume lowered to one set per exercise”. But here again the intensity is crucial.
In fact, you could look at a couple of forced weeks away from your training routine as a blessing and give your body a rest and enjoy the situation. Being mindful that anything beyond 2+ weeks can lead to a decline in muscular and cardiovascular fitness overall.
Suggested coping strategies to deal with disruptions in your training routine:
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Accept the situationand don’t stress about it
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Schedule your training routine like you would work commitments
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Look for opportunities in your everyday routine to get moving – be flexible
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Re-examine your goals and create a new challenge
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Don’t look at what your ‘old best’ was instead focus on what your ‘new best’ can be
We've also written some blogs to help you in your fitness journey:
- Six simple ways to help get you back in the gym and back in shape
- Need motivation? Here are some tips to get you going.
- Training on the holiday or while traveling? We got you.
BOTTOMLINE
We are all on this journey of life and some phases bring ups and other downs but either way there are always changes. So, take a moment to reflect on where you are at, what you can do and then makes those steps to get back into being active and your training routine. As the saying goes “Take small steps every day and one day you will get there”.
Anna Timms (BSc) is a university qualified scientist and VPA staff member. Her favourite VPA product is Sour Worms Protein Water.
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