Returning to form if you've stoppped exercising with BritishVogue
As if our exercise habits this year hadn’t been erratic enough, now we’re into lockdown 2.0, gyms are closed and it’s winter, which often zaps any enthusiasm for getting out of bed for a morning run. And that’s before we factor in regular winter illnesses like colds and flus.
What happens when you stop exercising for a week?
This is when the body starts to show the effects of not exercising. “Various studies show that you see health compromises after about five days or so. Physical activity increases time spent in deep sleep, the most physically restorative sleep phase, Deep sleep helps to boost immune function, support cardiac health, and control stress and anxiety.”
Also, our mood might start to dip without a regular shot of exercise-induced endorphins. Recent research in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that working out creates proteins which can help protect your brain from stress-induced depression. So, when you stop working out, you can miss out on these natural anti-depressants.
What happens when you stop exercising for two weeks?
Now this is when you might want to start to take notice. A study by Dr Bowden Davies and her group of 28 healthy, regularly active adults with an average age of 32, found that after two weeks of acting like a couch potato, fitness levels dropped by 4 per cent. Not only that, but their waist circumference rose by nearly one-third of an inch, liver fat increased by 0.2 per cent and total body fat went up by 0.5 per cent.
Meanwhile quitting exercise might make us more forgetful. When University of Maryland researchers scanned the brains of fit older athletes, they found that blood flow to the athletes’ brains — particularly to the hippocampus, a structure involved in learning and memory — dropped significantly after a 10-day exercise hiatus.
Even though it’s lockdown, there are still plenty of ways to work out. “Before the first lockdown people were sceptical that you could get results at home,” adds Pennicotte-Collier. “But you absolutely can.”
So why not join in? Keep active during the Coronavirus outbreak.
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Have you seen MoJoManuals? FOOTBALLMoJo, LACROSSEMoJo, ROWMoJo, NETBALLMoJo – www.WSNet.co.uk/MoJoManuals
MoJoManuals addressing the wide range of issues which teenage girls face as they engage in competitive sport. Predicated on 'Physical Literacy' but also cover a range of other emotive issues such as: body image, diet, fit or thin, social media, training with menstruation, coaching style etc. – which impact how girls engage/drop out of sport – and potentially go on to be elite athletes and confident, mature young women outside of sport.
