There are countless reasons why your clients may need to take an extended break from their exercise routines, from illness and injury to vacation, holidays, semester breaks or a busy period at work. Even health and exercise professionals may occasionally need to take time off from their regular workouts. And we’ve all felt the effects, including sluggishness and weakness while doing exercises that used to be part of our everyday programs.

Returning to exercise after time away is often difficult, but is the loss of fitness and strength one often feels genuine and, if so, can it be quantified? Perhaps more importantly, is there a way to prevent or minimize the effects?

An ACE-supported study examined the physiological implications of hitting the “pause button” on a regular exercise training program and quantified the timing and magnitude of changes in fitness and health that occur.

Before participants completed a 13-week progressive exercise program based on the ACE Integrated Fitness Training^® (ACE IFT^®) Model, the researchers took the following measurements:

• Anthropometric measurements (weight, height, percent body fat and waist circumference)
• Fasting blood lipid and blood glucose measurements [total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), triglycerides and blood glucose]
• Resting heart rate and blood pressure
• Flexibility assessment (sit-and-reach test)
• Muscular fitness assessments [five-repetition maximum (5-RM) testing for the bench press and leg press]
• Maximal exercise testing for cardiorespiratory fitness (maximal oxygen uptake, or VO₂max)
• Determination of first and second ventilatory thresholds (VT1 and VT2)

Those same data were gathered after they completed the initial program. As you might expect, participants were generally fitter and healthier after training for 13 weeks. Specifically, they saw improvements in VO₂max, body-fat percentage, bench press 5-RM, leg press 5-RM, sit-and-reach scores, systolic blood pressure, HDL cholesterol and triglycerides.

At this point, the participants were randomly placed into two groups. The “training” group continued the exercise program for four additional weeks, while the “detraining” group stopped the program and did not perform any structured exercise for four weeks.

Not surprisingly, those in the “training” group continued to see improvements as they maintained the program. Meanwhile, those in the “detraining” group saw a significant worsening of all measures of physical fitness, along with increases in systolic blood pressure, HDL cholesterol and triglycerides. Stated simply, stopping regular exercise erased all their hard-earned progress within one month.

Though it might seem discouraging at first glance, this research highlights the need for true lifestyle change and sustained exercise training. Something is always better than nothing when it comes to physical activity, so it’s important to ensure your clients have a plan for staying active when they won’t be training with you or doing their regular workouts.

The workout presented here is a great place to start. Featuring exercises from the ACE-supported study, this workout is an easy way to squeeze in some training that can help clients maintain their health and fitness during those periods when they’ll be taking a break from their regular routine. At the link at the top of this page, ACE Certified Professionals have exclusive access to a printable PDF of the workout that can be shared directly with clients.

• This resistance-training routine can be completed twice per week on nonconsecutive days, beginning with one set of 12 repetitions for each exercise and then progressing to two sets of 12 repetitions for each exercise.
• Remind clients to rest for two to three minutes between sets.
• As shown, this is a total-body exercise routine, but can be adjusted to meet your client’s availability on any given day. For example, if the full workout normally takes 30 minutes to complete, but your client has just 10 minutes to exercise each day for the next two weeks, then they can divide the workout into three 10-minute segments by doing three exercises each day.

The table below outlines how to perform this routine in its entirety two days per week. It also includes a time-saver version, where the same exercises are performed over the course of six days per week. The key is to help your clients find a way to be physically active under different circumstances to reduce the negative impact of a break in their regular routine and prevent their fitness from fading.

This can also be applied to cardiorespiratory-training goals. If, for example, your client wants to perform 30 minutes of cardiorespiratory exercise on three days per week, it is important to have a plan for fitting this exercise into their daily routine no matter how their schedule changes. On some days, they may be able to exercise for 30 minutes all at once, while on another day they may need to take a series of five- to 10-minute walks to accumulate the total desired time. In both scenarios, a total of 30 minutes of exercise is achieved, but the way in which it is accomplished meets the demands of their current lifestyle.