During our swimming careers we have all experienced the feeling of "being in-shape" and not quite "in-shape".
My question is this; From a physiological or Kinesiological standpoint, what is happening in your body when you can so easily go from being in-shape to losing that in a matter of a week or two?
I'm an old masters swimmer now but even swimming High School, Club or College whenever I would go on a vacation or get sick for a week, it took two - three weeks to get back to where I was before the vacation or sickness?
What is happening in our body when we can swim a 1:07 BR and then two weeks later can't break 1:10???
Thanks in advance for your answers and opinions...
:confused:
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Former Member
My question is this; From a physiological or Kinesiological standpoint, what is happening in your body when you can so easily go from being in-shape to losing that in a matter of a week or two? First let's agree that not everything is being lost in a matter of a week or two.
The loss in fitness that occurs in such a small period of time is mainly due to a drop in cardiac output (caused by a drop of plasma volume) as well as a drop of intramitochondrial enzyme efficiency.
Think of those enzymes as being the employees that process a large portion of metabolic functions within the mitochondria. With fitness, these employees are capable of processing more metabolic at a higher rate. With a two week brake, they just need a week or two to regain this loss efficiency.
Also, some hormones tend to overreact a bit after this sort of break. Drop in cardiac output along with increased activity of adrenalin for instance tend to increase the heart rate (sometimes considerably).
My question is this; From a physiological or Kinesiological standpoint, what is happening in your body when you can so easily go from being in-shape to losing that in a matter of a week or two? First let's agree that not everything is being lost in a matter of a week or two.
The loss in fitness that occurs in such a small period of time is mainly due to a drop in cardiac output (caused by a drop of plasma volume) as well as a drop of intramitochondrial enzyme efficiency.
Think of those enzymes as being the employees that process a large portion of metabolic functions within the mitochondria. With fitness, these employees are capable of processing more metabolic at a higher rate. With a two week brake, they just need a week or two to regain this loss efficiency.
Also, some hormones tend to overreact a bit after this sort of break. Drop in cardiac output along with increased activity of adrenalin for instance tend to increase the heart rate (sometimes considerably).
