The Effects of Detraining in Athletes (and How to Avoid It)

By Chad Anderson

Your athlete worked hard all off-season. Then the season starts, practices and games fill the calendar, and strength training stops. A few weeks later they feel slower, tire sooner and pick up nagging aches. That’s detraining in athletes: the loss of fitness that happens when training stops or drops too low.

Here are five reasons your athlete should keep up their performance training during the season, what the research says about how quickly fitness fades, and how to keep it.

1. Use It or Lose It

Detraining is the partial or complete loss of the gains made in training when the training stimulus isn’t enough to keep them. When muscles aren’t loaded regularly, the strength and fitness they built start to slip, often faster than athletes expect.

How much an athlete loses depends on their body, their training history and their sport. Everyone responds a little differently, but no one is immune.

2. Strength and Power Fade

A large review of resistance training research found that stopping training reduced every part of muscular performance: submaximal strength, maximal strength and power. The longer the break, the bigger the loss.

That matters for athletes, because strength and power drive speed, jumping, throwing and tackling. Losing them means losing the edge your athlete trained so hard for.

3. Conditioning Drops Quickly

VO2 max is the body’s ability to take in and use oxygen. It’s a big part of being able to repeat hard efforts and recover between them. A research review on short breaks from training found that well-trained athletes lose VO2 max and blood volume quickly once they stop.

In one classic study of endurance-trained athletes, VO2 max dropped 7% in the first 21 days without training and settled about 16% below their trained level after 56 days. When conditioning drops, hard intervals and late-game sprints get harder, and athletes lose some of the top speed they worked to build.

4. Lost Fitness Can Leave Athletes More Injury-Prone

When fitness drops, athletes tire sooner. Tired athletes lose form, react more slowly and absorb force less well when they land, cut or get hit. That’s when ankles roll, knees buckle and muscles strain.

Coming back from a long break is another risky time. If an athlete jumps straight back into full training after weeks off, the gap between what they’re asking of their body and what it’s ready for can lead to injury. Staying active, even with a different sport or lighter training, helps keep that gap small.

5. Motivation Slips

One effect of detraining that doesn’t get talked about much is lost motivation. Once the routine breaks, it gets harder to get back in the weight room and put in the effort. Keeping some training in the schedule keeps the habit alive.

Is a Break Ever a Good Thing?

Yes, when it’s planned. A short, planned rest after a long season or a plateau can help an athlete come back refreshed. The problem is the unplanned break that drags on for months with no strength or speed work at all. Too much training without rest is a problem too; our article on overtraining syndrome explains the signs.

How to Avoid Detraining During the Season

1. Set clear objectives: decide what your athlete needs to keep during the season, like strength, speed or mobility.
2. Use a personalized in-season program: shorter, focused sessions that fit around practices and games.
3. Keep some heavy and fast work: a little strength, power and sprint work goes a long way toward holding on to gains.
4. Stick with it: consistent training through the season protects progress and makes the next off-season more productive.

Even during the season, practice alone usually doesn’t give athletes all the strength, agility, speed, balance and endurance work they need to stay healthy and perform at their best. That’s why it’s worth continuing sports performance training in-season. For younger athletes, strength training is especially important as they grow. Every program we build follows The Gray Method™.

Keep reading: youth athlete performance training and 7 reasons your athlete needs sports performance training.

Research

• Mujika I, Padilla S. Detraining: loss of training-induced physiological and performance adaptations. Part I: short term insufficient training stimulus. Sports Med. 2000;30(2):79-87. PubMed
• Coyle EF, Martin WH 3rd, Sinacore DR, et al. Time course of loss of adaptations after stopping prolonged intense endurance training. J Appl Physiol. 1984;57(6):1857-1864. PubMed
• Bosquet L, Berryman N, Dupuy O, et al. Effect of training cessation on muscular performance: a meta-analysis. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2013;23(3):e140-e149. PubMed

Keep Your Athlete’s Gains All Season

Our in-season athletic performance training fits around practices and games, so your athlete stays strong, fast and healthy from the first game to the last.

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Call our office at (239) 223-0484 to schedule your athlete’s first session.