Why Is Fitness So Hard To Maintain?

d00d - 2011-02-06 9:57 AM Sometimes, it feels like such a losing battle to maintain fitness. Can anyone relate?

A few months ago, I had to reduce my w/o due to a deployment. When I got back into it, the bike felt like I hadn't been on it in over a year. Just to go 16+mph felt like a hard effort for a little while.

After my Ironman in August 2010, I took a little time off for recovery. When I came back, I though to myself, "Where'd all those months of fitness  go? I just did an Ironman not too long ago!"

Does anyone else feel like this? Why is it so hard to maintain fitness?

d00d - 2011-02-06 12:57 PM Why is it so hard to maintain fitness?

d00d - 2011-02-06 11:57 AM

Why is it so hard to maintain fitness?

mmrocker13 - 2011-02-06 11:18 AM It gets easier the longer you've done it. Really...I mean, a layoff isn't going to boost your endurance, but the bigger macro-base you have, the easier it gets to come back after a longer time off.

MikeTheBear - 2011-02-06 1:43 PM Because the body has adapted itself for efficient survival. One of the biggest threats facing our ancestors was lack of food (calories), so the body is always looking for ways to run as efficiently as possible. Fitness requires the body to go through a lot of adaptations. This requires energy, i.e., calories. These fitness adaptations, however, are not conducive to efficient survival. Without the stress, i.e. exercise, that signals the body to create these adaptations, the body will use the calories for other things (repair and growth, or in the case of famine, basic survival) or turn them into fat. The effect is even worse in strength sports. Although we all like to have some muscle on our bodies, our bodies don't like to make muscle. Muscle tissue is metabolically "expensive" - it takes energy to both make muscle tissue and to keep it. Fat, on the other hand, is much "cheaper" to maintain. When people go on diets, the body wants to dump the "expensive" muscle tissue first and keep the "cheaper" fat. It's like if you suddenly lost a high-paying job and needed to sell stuff - you'd sell the jewelry before you started selling off furniture. I've done both strength and endurance sports and strength gains seem to disappear much more quickly than endurance gains. However, I've also noticed that lost strength is easier to regain and can be regained more quickly than "new" strength. This is also somewhat true of endurance. Fortunately, by regularly using the fitness qualities you have worked so hard to develop, you are tricking your body into thinking that these are necessary for survival, and the qualities can be maintained even when your body thinks there is a famine. This is why I recommend weight training for anyone who is dieting. Lifting heavy stuff tells the body that it needs to keep the more expensive muscle and start using fat for fuel.

d00d - 2011-02-06 9:57 AM Sometimes, it feels like such a losing battle to maintain fitness. Can anyone relate?

lvis - 2011-02-06 1:28 PM First of all, Thank you for your service to our great country. Next, maybe you havent lost that much "fitness" but you probably now hold yourself to a higher standard of fitness. Thats how I feel about it.

pga_mike - 2011-02-06 3:31 PM

I don't share your view.

With a modicum of time (T<=5 hrs/wk), I can keep my fitness at an acceptable level (i.e. ready to run a half-marathon, Olympic Tri, Half-Century or the like).

I wouldn't expect to keep anything more demanding without a concerted effort.