How not to lose your gains

The real science behind muscle and strength loss

If you're used to working out regularly at the gym, then you might think that two weeks without training can turn you into an asparagus tartan. However, that's not the realistic picture of the link between a training break and lost gains.

From a physiological point of view, what happens when you stop training? How long can you extend such a training break before strength and muscle mass will start to decline? Fortunately, scientists have taken a closer look at these things and can give us a pretty good idea of what to expect.

The science of atrophy

Since muscle mass is quite "expensive" for our bodies to maintain from a metabolic standpoint, our bodies are programmed to get rid of "excess" muscle mass when it is no longer needed. If you take time off from training, then the stimulus that maintains your muscle mass and strength will no longer be there and your body will start to break down unnecessary, energy-consuming mass.

We know that hypertrophy is an active process where strength training activates a number of anabolic pathways and this stimulus is what causes a growth response. Atrophy (muscle wasting) was previously believed to be the exact opposite - a passive process in the body where the absence of physical activity does not activate these pathways. These were known as "atrophy pathways" or mechanisms, but about 15 years ago scientists began to study these processes a little more closely and gained new insights.

Do you have UPP? Of course not

The processes that initiate atrophy are always the same - regardless of what sets them in motion. Atrophy can come about as a result of calorie restriction, inactivity, metabolic diseases, etc. The catabolic processes are called proteolytic(protein degrading) and part of the response is the activation of the signaling pathway known as the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway (UPP).

Figuratively speaking, activation of the UPP sticks little "destroy me" tags on muscle protein. This protein is then transported through a barrel-shaped tunnel where it is broken down into small pieces and released as amino acids. The two main villains in this bodybuilding nightmare are atrogin1 and muRF1.

Studies have been conducted with rats in which these genes were eliminated and as a result a clearly measurable absence of atrophy was observed. Since the discovery of these two villains in 2001, a number of other accomplices including a synergist called erg1a.

The catabolism cure that didn't really work

There used to be an antihistamine on the market called astemizole, which inhibits erg1a and thus also acts as an atrophy retardant. Unfortunately, this formula also inhibited erg1a in the heart, causing heart problems. Astemizole was therefore withdrawn from the market in 1999.

Since then, scientists working on atrophy have been working to develop astemizole so that it only affects erg1a in striated skeletal muscle and not in the heart. And they are trying to find methods to inhibit the erg1a gene and thus also the ubiquitin-proteasome signaling pathway.

Body fat, tendon strength and other effects of a training break

In addition to atrophy, a number of other changes can be observed when you take time out from training. You will often see a reduction in the amount of capillaries. This is most commonly observed when taking time out from cardio training.

Scientists have observed a reduction in the number of capillaries as early as 2 to 3 weeks after stopping a cardio workout. They also observed a rapid decrease in oxidative enzymes, leading to reduced ATP production in the mitochondria.

An increase in body fat can often be observed during a training break. And as far as strength training is concerned, you will see a reduction in strength and a decrease in tendon stiffness. The number of satellite cells may also decrease slightly.

In some cases, growth hormone levels decrease at rest, while cortisol levels increase. Other studies have found that the levels of these hormones and the number of satellite cells remained unchanged. The latter (the maintenance of satellite cells) is a large part of what is known as muscle memory.

In general, the fitter you were before you started training, the greater the decrease in muscle mass, strength and performance will be if you take too long a break from training. Why? Because it costs the body an enormous amount of energy to be extremely fit. The body will then take every opportunity to reduce this performance in order to save energy.

Strength athletes seem to have an advantage over endurance athletes because cardio fitness is degraded faster than strength and the ability to produce power.

A concrete example

In the table below you can see the changes that occurred in an elite powerlifter when he stopped training for 7 months.

	Trained	After 7 months off training
Weight	121 kg	94 kg
Body fat	25,2%	14,8%
Thigh circumference	82 cm	66 cm
VO2 Max	32.6 ml/kg/min	49.1 ml/kg/min
Maximum heart rate	200	198
Muscle cross-sectional area Type I fibers Type IIa fibers Type IIb fibers	5.625 µm2 9.618 µm2 8,539 m2	3.855 µm2 5,835 m2 5,07 m2

The powerlifter has dramatically reduced his weight. This was based on a massive reduction in body fat, but also on an enormous reduction in muscle mass. His type II fibers have significantly decreased in cross-sectional area.

How quickly do you lose strength?

The degree of strength you will lose during a training break will depend on your genetic predispositions, your age, your training experience, the muscles we are talking about, how long the training break is and whether it is a complete training break (no training) or a reduction.

The longer the training break, the more strength you will certainly lose. But taking a week or two off doesn't seem to matter much in the big picture of things.

Here's what else studies have to say on the subject:

• A study conducted by Hortobagyi et al. showed that strength was maintained in strength athletes even after a 2 week break from training.
• Scientists have found that strength is maintained for up to four weeks. There are also studies that show that if you don't take a complete break from training and do occasional short training sessions, you can even get away with up to 6 weeks off without significantly losing strength.
• In studies carried out with untrained test subjects, there was a 31% increase in strength after four weeks of training. This was followed by 2 weeks without training, during which strength fell by only 5% and 24% of the strength gains were maintained.
• In Olympic weightlifters, a 10% reduction in squat strength was observed after four weeks without training.
• In a study conducted by Lemmer et al., strength increased by 34% in a group of 20 to 30 year old subjects after nine weeks of training and by 28% in a group of 65 to 75 year old subjects. After a break of 31 weeks, strength had decreased by 14% in the younger group and by 8% in the older group. Regardless of age, strength decreased only slightly during the first 12 weeks, while the greatest decrease in strength was observed in weeks 13 to 31.
• In young people who are still growing, breaks in training appear to be less catastrophic, as these individuals "naturally" become stronger as a result of the general maturation process, including an increase in testosterone levels. Older people, on the other hand, lose strength faster than younger people when they stop training, especially if the training break is long. In a study conducted with 68-year-old subjects, six weeks without training resulted in a 15% decrease in strength.

How quickly do you lose muscle mass?

Since there is a correlation between strength and muscle fiber size, a decrease in strength will in most cases result in a decrease in muscle mass. However, the loss of strength that can be observed during the first few weeks of a training break is believed to be primarily related to a reduced neural drive - a weakening of the nervous system's activation system, while a loss in muscle fiber size takes slightly longer.

Some studies have observed the onset of muscle atrophy as early as two weeks after the end of training. Other studies have concluded that atrophy does not occur after such a short period of time. As with strength, the degree of atrophy is related to how active you are during the training break and how fit you were before the break.

This is worth repeating: more mass is associated with more pronounced atrophy. And the older you are, the more aggressive this atrophy seems to be. This could be linked to the fact that younger people are generally more physically active than older individuals, as inactivity is one of the most important factors in the onset of atrophy.

In one study, subjects increased their cross-sectional muscle area in the thighs by 10% after three months of training. However, after three months without training, these increases had completely disappeared again.

In another study, subjects experienced a 26% increase in muscle cross-sectional area and a strength increase of up to 40% during a 24-week training program. After 12 weeks without training, the muscle cross-sectional area had returned to its initial value, while strength had only decreased by 30%.

This indicates that the neuronal adaptations have not completely disappeared despite a rather aggressive atrophy. Under normal circumstances, hypertrophy in type II muscle fibers is more pronounced when you perform a strength training program and it is further believed that type II muscle fibers atrophy more readily than type I muscle fibers.

Bodybuilders often have very large type II muscle fibers and unfortunately, these are also the fibers that lose their size the fastest.

How you can minimize your losses

If a training break is unavoidable, there are certain things you can do to minimize unwanted physical changes:

1. try to squeeze in some training when possible. Some exercise is better than no exercise

If it is possible, you can gain a lot by continuing to train at a reduced volume or frequency during the training break. Scientists have observed that full maintenance of strength is possible with just one set of the 1RM weight for a series of exercises once a week. Studies have also shown that gains achieved by training three days per week over a 16-week period could be more or less maintained over an 8-week period with just one training session per week.

Furthermore, a reduction in training from two to three times a week to once or twice a week did not result in a reduction in strength after 12 weeks of training at this reduced rate. Similarly, it was observed that a complete cessation of training resulted in a significant decrease in strength, while only one training session every two weeks resulted in a significantly lower decrease in strength.

If reducing your training to one or two sessions per week is an option, then you can dramatically reduce the loss of gains compared to a complete cessation of training.

2. train harder before the training break

A study conducted by Fatouros showed that high training intensity not only contributed to greater strength gains during the training phase, but also to better strength maintenance during the non-training phase.

In this study, subjects were divided into three groups who trained at three different intensities: 40% of 1RM, 60% of 1RM and 80% of 1RM. Their bench press strength increased by 34%, 48% and 75% after 6 months of training, while their leg strength increased by 38%, 53% and 63%.

After six months of training, the subjects took a 6-month break from training, after which their bench press strength decreased by 98%, 50% and 29%, and their leg strength decreased by 70%, 44% and 27%. The higher the intensity during the training phase, the lower the subsequent loss of strength.

3. use some planned overreaching right before your training break

If you train the same muscles two or three days in a row before a training break, or push yourself to your limits during a hard training week with 6 to 7 training days, your training break will serve as a much-needed recovery break. Due to supercompensation, you may even be stronger after your training break than before.

By: Brian Henneberg

Source https://www.t-nation.com/training/how-not-to-lose-your-gains

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