Forced Detraining: It’s a new reality.
Like it or not, this pandemic has us all rebuilding the lives we had before with new constraints and new rules and seeking a sense of normalcy and joy.
And while a few weeks really isn’t a long time, it feels like a long time when you’re:
Learning how to stay inside and be still
Undertaking homeschooling for the first time
Stretching finances to cover a month with unfavorably adjusted finances
And yes, looking for a piece of furniture in your living room that could facilitate a semi-decent box jump
If you’ve checked the sidewalks lately, you’ll notice thick quads that previously set up camp at the squat rack six days a week are thundering down sidewalks, whipping out home workouts with forgotten sets of old dumbbells, and seeking to recreate an outlet that was unexpectedly ripped away.
It takes years to increase size.
It takes years to increase strength.
It takes diligence to strive toward peak conditioning levels and to generate endurance that feels elegant and “easy”.
It’s a valid question to wonder how much will be lost during this phase of de-training and what will it feel and look like when you get to scan your gym key again.
While lots of things affect muscle growth/maintenance like age, sex, sleep, stress, nutrition, time spent consistently training, progressive overload and training variation, let’s pretend that all of these other factors are ideal and settled perfectly.
The answer you strength trainers are looking for, roughly not until around three weeks of no training/greatly reduced training.
For endurance runners, you will see drops in mile PRs fairly quickly (as quickly as a week), but not significant changes in work you’re able to perform until the tail end of 30 days and no movement.
And for cardio maximums (think sprint work and maximum power output), as quickly as within 3-5 days off.
I hope this comforts you, especially since HIIT and strength training benefits you’ve been working toward hang on the longest. And the more maintenance workouts you do during this time, the better as you really only NEED 2-3 strength training workouts per week (hitting every major muscle group intensely) to maintain gains. If you kick up intensity, you can even see gains during this time.
So, what should you do to maintain?
1. Maintain that high protein MAINTENANCE diet.
Studies where participants maintained calories (energy in matched energy out) showed least change in muscle loss.
Studies where participants de-trained and operated on a caloric deficit actually saw significant muscle loss due to not enough calories to sustain daily function, so muscle supply was up for the gouge.
Pair a hyper caloric diet with de-training and you don’t have a successful plan to maintain and preserve muscle fibers.
Participants who ate in a surplus saw fat gain and muscle loss due to no strength training to put those extra calories to work.
Maintenance is where it’s at. Just maintain.
2. Go Full Body.
What do I mean by full body? Hit all three muscle groups in one workout: legs, back (pull muscles) and chest (push muscles).
3. Go Intense.
What do I mean by intense? This has to be defined by what you’ve got available. Go heavy/to failure if you’ve got the equipment to do so.
Go shorter rest periods/higher reps if you don’t have the equipment. Trust me, your muscles can experience hypertrophy (growth/fullness in the cross-section) with light weights.
4. Pick Compound Movements.
What do I mean by compound movements? Any movement that requires an entire muscle group v. an isolated muscle to complete it. Ex. a squat requires a hinge at the hips and flexion at the knee. This is a compound movement. A hamstring curl requires only flexion at the knee. This is an isolation movement.
5. Aim for 2-3 workouts (FB!) per week:
Studies show that full body strength training where intensity increased was actually very effective at maintaining and in some cases increasing strength.
6. Do something.
If you can’t go intense or you don’t have access to any equipment, extend your duration. Go for long walks, go for a bike ride, do something. Studies where participants did something rather than were completely sedentary held on much longer to gains than those who completely fell out of rotation due to not having their typical routine in place.
7. Relax.
The longer you’ve been consistently training, the faster and easier you will get right back to it.
If maintaining your weight is the goal, long walks and increased activity will do the trick. If strength is your goal, you may need to implement some calisthenic moves and depending on your equipment availability, you may need to focus on strength endurance training – it’s never bad to switch things up.
XOXO
Trainer Katye
References:
https://exrx.net/Sports/ResidualTraining
IRONKLAD FITNESS 