Use It or Lose It

It is common knowledge that if you take some time from training, your performance will suffer. Large muscles will only remain large through constant stimulation. Otherwise, the body tries to "return to normal" through a process known as homeostasis.

After all, it is metabolically expensive to maintain that muscle, and far easier to have less mass and more strength instead. Strength, however, will also fade because, as a function of neurological efficiency, the central nervous system "forgets" when it is not constantly "reminded" through the stimulus of training.

Endurance runners find that their capacity to run far or fast diminishes as the body begins discarding the organelles in the cells no longer needed to sustain the long workouts, and the heart rate slowly increases again as the lack of stimulation causes it to lose efficiency.

This seems to be a training paradox. We learned through the General Adaptation Syndrome that if the body is constantly stressed through training, it will eventually reach exhaustion. So how does one create a program that will continue to stimulate the body without overstressing it?

The use/misuse principle says that if you don't use it, you lose it. So, to avoid losing it altogether, there are several strategies we can employ.

Wave Loading

Wave loading refers to the process of increasing over time, and then "stepping back." For example, with your weight lifting, you might add five kilos of weight every week for three weeks then reduce your weight by five kilos on the fourth week. The progression might look like this:

Week 1: 50 kilos
Week 2: 55 kilos
Week 3: 60 kilos
Week 4: 55 kilos
Week 5: 60 kilos
Week 6: 65 kilos

As you can see, the increases form a sort of wave. This allows for active recovery or a slight rest afforded by the fact that you have several weeks scheduled when you are not overloading. Wave loading is popular not just with resistance training, but in running as well - very few runners sequentially increase their mileage from week to week, but will have weeks with less mileage interspersed to avoid burnout and injury.

Diminished Loading

This is another popular technique that can reduce the stress of training. Your first week, you may add 10% to the volume or weight or distance. Your second week, you add 5%, then your third week you add 2%. Then, you back off and start over at a slight higher weight. For example:

Week 1: 50 kilos
Week 2: 55 kilos (+10%)
Week 3: 58 kilos (+5%)
Week 4: 59 kilos (+2%)
Week 5: 55 kilos
Week 6: 60 kilos (+10%)

And so on. Again, you are using overload but also avoiding disuse by continuing to progress from week to week.

Tapering

Tapering is common in all sports. With bodybuilding, lifters will typically reduce the volume and intensity of their lifts just prior to a show. Runners will reduce their mileage prior to a main event. Tapering gives the body more time for active recovery. The idea is to let the body fully recover from the heavy training load, while still engaging in light activity to avoid regressing from disuse.

Rest

Rest, of course, is the ultimate way to avoid burnout and exhausting. Of course, rest means disuse - you are no longer lifting the weight or running on the road. How much rest is enough? It probably varies from person to person. Some people can recover quickly, while others require far more rest.

There are several types of rest. Some rest is short term. In my own ultramarathon training program, I have a few full days of rest during the week. They are strategically placed before and after my most intense training days (a "long run") so that I can come into the run adequately rested and refreshed and also have extra time to recover. I will also taper before my event, allowing for more rest, and then always schedule several days (3 - 5) of full relaxation after the main event.

Most weight lifters, runners, and other athletes will benefit from periods of several days of rest built into their training schedule after main events, as well as a few weeks every year or so. A few weeks of rest can cause diminished performance, but only short term. It takes several months to completely lose the effects of training, and some people believe that a "muscle memory" exists allowing anyone who has been athletic to "get back to it" rather quickly after a long lay off.

The bottom line is that you will have periods of disuse, whether from scheduled rest or due to injury, schedule changes, and other events. It is important to understand the use/disuse principle and make use of these techniques to avoid burning out and at the same time not allowing your hard-earned gains to go away.