By Dayne Hudson
You know the feeling.
You miss just ONE day or heaven forbid, 2 days in the gym.
You feel like your laziness has opened up the door and your muscle gains have ran out of it at the speed of light!
And sometimes it get's worse - what if we miss up to 3 weeks? Surely we'll be a skeleton!?
LOSING MUSCLE MASS
A recent study examined 2 training groups to investigate this very topic (1).
In this research, 14 young men were randomly divided into a continuous training group and a periodic training group.
Both groups performed high-intensity bench press exercise training [75 % of one repetition maximum (1-RM); 3 sets of 10 reps] for 3 days per week.
The continuous training group trained non-stop over a 24-week period, whereas the periodic training group performed three cycles of 6-week training with 3-week detraining periods between training cycles.
After an initial 6 weeks of training, increases in muscle growth of the triceps brachii and pectoralis major muscles were seen in both groups.
In the continuous training group, muscle cross-sectional area and strength gradually increased during the initial 6 weeks of training. But the rate of increase in muscle cross sectional area and 1RM decreased gradually after that.
Over in the periodic training group, increase in muscle cross-sectional area and strength during the first 3-week detraining/6-week retraining cycle were similar to that in the continuous training group during the corresponding period.
Now this is where it gets interesting.
Increases in muscle cross-sectional area and strength during the second 3-week detraining/6-week retraining cycle were significantly higher in the periodic training group than in the continuous training group.
So the overall improvements in muscle mass and strength were similar between the groups.
TIME OFF THE GYM - WILL WE LOSE SIZE?
So what do we take from the results?
Well they indicate that 3-week detraining/6-week retraining cycles result in muscle hypertrophy similar to that occurring with continuous resistance training after 24 weeks.
Amazing huh?
So if you have to take some time off from the gym....don't stress!
You really shouldn't lost too many gains at all!
PROTEIN INTAKE
It may not be such a bad thing to have time off, clearly.
But just make sure you're keeping your protein levels high when you're not at the gym - as this is still important even though you're not training!
So if you're having a little holiday and having some time off the gym, and you're feeling guilty about losing muscle mass, know this: it probably isn't worth the worry at all!
"Stay Fit, Stay Flexed!"
REFERENCES
(1) Ogasawara R et al. Comparison of muscle hypertrophy following 6-month of continuous and periodic strength training. European Journal of Applied Physiology. April 2013, Volume 113, Issue 4, pp 975-985.
