How Long Before You Lose Muscle?
What separates the nice body haves from the nice body have-nots is consistency.
Yeah, taking your ass to the motherfucking gym no matter what!
…but there are times that you just can’t find a way to squeeze the gym — and all that goes with it — into your daily routine. You know, like when you’re laid up in bed with a stomach flu that has it coming out of both ends violently. Or it’s family vacation time and you have to take the kiddies on a road trip to Wally World. Under these and similar conditions, your ability to train regularly and eat properly will be shot to hell for a number of days.
If that’s the case, take a break.
Yes, you heard me!
DON’T TAKE YOUR ASS TO THE MOTHERFUCKING GYM!!!
But wait, what about your precious gains?
How long before you lose muscle?!
Well, it depends…
After working out regularly, nothing’s going to happen to you during the week or two that you’re away from the gym.
Well, nothing except your nervous system recovering and the muscles and connective tissue fully repairing themselves. All of this translates to possible strength gains from the body finally having the chance to rest and recuperate from the demands of training. Another thing to consider is that if you’ve been restricting your calories for months, then coming off your diet is an opportunity for you to jump start your metabolism, which slows down and burns less fat as the body adapts to having to draw energy from less and less food.
So take that break…
…and don’t beat yourself up about it, either!1Yes, eat and drink as you please and then puke and crap your brains out in peace knowing that you’re not making your figure any more unimpressive than it already is!
Yes, spend quality time with your children creating those memories that’ll scar them as adults. Yes, do that without going ape shit about the loss of your gains!!
Yes, lie in bed and plot your revenge on the motherfucker who got you sick. Yes, do that instead of working out and wasting energy that should be spent on your body developing an immune response!!!
One to two weeks of inactivity and eating freely won’t kill you.
Indeed, the time off may actually be beneficial. However, try not to let 1-2 weeks of slothfulness and gluttony snowball into a month, then a decade.
Get back on the horse!!!
Don’t allow yourself to get out of routine for too long.
For someone new to training or just doing it recreationally, the danger of taking a break from working out isn’t your hard-earned muscles turning to mush. Rather, the danger is you getting out of the habit of making fitness and nutrition part of your day-to-day. A prolonged sabbatical from the church of iron can lead to you having difficulty finding the motivation to pick things back up.
For the more disciplined and experienced gym-goer, motivation isn’t the issue.
The problem with extended breaks lies in the fact that since muscle is physiologically expensive for the body to build and maintain, the body will get rid of it when it’s not needed — like, ummmmm, when you stop training. And generally, the more muscle mass you have, the more of it the body will lose. This deconditioning — muscle atrophy and decreased strength — occurs in intermediate or advanced trainees in as little as 2-4 weeks.2Muscle atrophy is the loss of size, as you’d find out by clicking on the link for a very thorough definition!
The longer before this group of people returns to training, the more that deconditioning will take place. And the more deconditioning that occurs, the longer it’ll take to return to the previous level of conditioning. This is in stark contrast to those beginning their fitness journey, who lack any real muscle mass. They can go without training for at least three months without any visible signs of loss to their newbie gains, watch the training montage in Rocky IV and get inspired to walk into a gym again, and use almost the same amount of weight they left off using.3Another variable apart from experience and muscle mass is age. Research suggests that the rate of loss during a break increases as one ages. For example, a study examining age and gender responses to weight training and detraining discovered that the 65 to 75 year old group of participants suffered a loss of strength at almost double the pace of the 20 to 30 year old group during seven months of no lifting.
By the way, because I know you’re curious, the study also found that sex doesn’t affect deconditioning. Look at that, women are equal to men!
Wherever you are in your training, you’re more than likely doing yourself a huge favor by relaxing on vacation instead of trying to make the hotel gym serviceable.4Trust me, it isn’t! Or resting on your deathbed instead of going to the gym and contaminating it out of some desperate attempt to score macho points.5Trust me, no one is impressed and everyone hates you for exposing them to whatever you have!
Rest!
It’s an important but criminally overlooked part of the process.
…just don’t let that rest turn into something more and risk undoing the hard work of a few months!!!6If that rest has indeed turned into something more, then you’re going to need help getting back into the gym after a layoff!
Glossary: atrophy, calories, diet, discipline, fat, fitness, gym, gym-goer, journey, metabolism, motivation, muscle, work out