But exactly how much fitness you’ll "lose" depends on the length of your break and how fit you were. Before you know it, you’re asking that question we’ve all asked: How long does it take to lose my fitness First, it’s important to remember that taking time off now and hi-temp cabin cooling unit Suppliers again is a good thing — exercise inflicts a degree of stress on the body, and any good workout programme includes a heck of a lot of rest days, especially if the exercise is very intense. But here’s the kicker: While general strength doesn’t change much in that period, specialised, sport-specific muscle fibers start to change in as little as two weeks without a workout .We’re firm believers in cutting yourself some slack and taking time off from exercise when you need to. In fact, with that strong of an exercise habit, scientists are quite willing to drop you in the "athlete" category.IF YOU EXERCISE REGULARlYIt’s a lot easier to bounce back from time off if you’re someone who exercises five or six times a week, or if you’ve been exercising for a while. But we also know how easily three days off can snowball into six, then 10." Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise published a review of several studies on the subject that looked at runners, rowers, and power athletes. "If you’re not sick, and especially if you’re able to get in some movement and light exercise, you can probably take three, four, even five weeks off without significant strength loss. One study of endurance cyclists found that four weeks of inactivity resulted in a 20 percent decrease of their VO2 max, which measures a person’s maximum capacity to take in, transport, and use oxygen during exercise. If you’ve been working out several times a week for more than a year, your muscle memory is solid. But it depends on why you take the break. While your cardio conditioning does fall faster than your strength, it’s easier to regain, Galbraith says. For example, endurance athletes lose a significant amount of the extra slow-twitch muscle fibers that they worked so hard to accumulate and the same thing happens for the power athletes and their hard-earned fast-twitch muscle fibers. That said, "use it or lose it" is pretty much the rule.. CARDIO LOSSSo what about all the cardio lovers out there who are more concerned with the strength of their heart and lungs Sadly, we lose this kind of conditioning a little more quickly than we lose strength. And there’s a benefit to both "active recovery" and complete rest. For athletes, your fitness can deteriorate at different rates depending on whether you’re looking at strength or cardiovascular losses. The body holds onto strength for as long as it can, but skills that are very specialised for certain sports will decline faster. For all of these groups, muscular strength fibers appear not to change, even after a month of inactivity.But keep your chin up.STRENGTH LOSSFor most people, strength loss occurs after about two-and-a-half to three weeks of inactivity, says Molly Galbraith, a strength and conditioning specialist and co-founder of Girls Gone Strong."If you are sick, your body is overstressed, so you’ll start to lose strength after two to three weeks," she says