Use it or lose it. This principle applies to brain, fitness and body.
Prolonged bed rest and inactivity can affect nearly all systems of the body, with wide-ranging structural and metabolic changes: the heart rate may rise excessively during physical activity, bones and muscles atrophy, physical endurance wanes, and blood volume declines. The more you work the cardiorespiratory system, the more efficient the heart will be at doing its job. — Filepic• Cardiovascular endurance – your body’s ability to keep up with exercise like running, jogging, swimming, cycling, and anything that forces your cardiovascular system to work for extended periods of time.
• Flexibility – the ability of the joints to move through a full range of motion without restrictions.The performance decline in each of these components will take place at different rates, and usually, the cardiovascular endurance component is the first to go.After missing a few workouts, you might have noticed that you’re panting up when going up the stairs or hill.
The researchers recruited 35 men and women between the ages of 22 and 77, all of whom were non-smokers and physically inactive. The “train” group continued the individualised exercise programme for an additional four weeks, while the “detrain” group discontinued regular exercise and did not perform any structured exercise for four weeks.