Will I lose my gains during the lock down period?!
Updated: Mar 8
Strength training and muscle gain (hypertrophy) can be challenging to achieve at home due to a lack of equipment and therefore the ability to create enough of a stimulu
This post will hopefully make those of you who are stressed about losing your hard earned strength gains feel a little more at ease.
- You might get stronger
It actually takes around 2 weeks of inactivity before you start to lose muscle and strength. Believe it or not, your body actually repairs and recovers whilst you aren’t training. So a week or so off will actually have positive effects if you have been training hard up until this point!
However here are a few measures you can take to help mitigate the effects of de training and muscle atrophy (loss).
1. Get some resistance training in where you can.
In order to help maintain muscle mass it is important to try and work within the hypertrophy rep range (around 8-12 reps). Utilising weights if you have them or objects around the house can help you do this.
You can add slow eccentrics and pauses into your exercises to make them slightly harder with the absence of enough weight! For example. The lowering phase of a squat could take 3 seconds then you could pause for 3 seconds at the bottom (believe me this is hard if done with enough control).
Where you can safely, take some sets to failure! This means do as many reps as possible until you can’t do any more.
2. Keep your diet in check.
Eat according to your goals. In the case of maintaining muscle mass (and for general health and immunity) the recommended protein intake is 1.2-1.6g per kg of bodyweight.
This means if you weigh 70kg, you need to consume at least 84g protein per day.
To give you an idea of how much this looks like in terms of food, one chicken breast is roughly 25g or one fillet of Salmon is roughly 20g.
3. DONT STRESS!
In this period of uncertainty it is important to try and limit stress. Easier said than done I know 😂. However stressing about losing muscle and strength will only make things worse. When stressed your body produces more of a hormone called cortisol, the hormone is essential for various reasons but does not aid muscle gain!. The production of this hormone results in reduced protein synthesis and therefore the breakdown of muscle. Raised cortisol levels can also mask any fat loss loss due to the part it plays in water retention.
Instead of worrying about not being in the gym try and focus on other aspects of your life: Eat well, sleep well, get outside (only once though 😉), learn a new skill and most importantly keep in touch with your loved ones!
We look forward to seeing you all come back to Relentless fresh, recovered and ready to make even more gains! ❤ 🙌🏼