Do you have to start from scratch after taking a break from exercising?

If you've taken a break from training—maybe you spent the summer holding a coconut on an island or perhaps you've had an injury, don't worry. It doesn't necessarily mean you've lost all your built-up muscle mass or fitness, and all the hard work before your break has gone to waste. Here's the deal.

Training your muscles

To understand what happens to your muscles when you stop exercising, let's see how they're built:

• Your body gets stimulated through strength training.
• During rest and recovery periods, this stimulus diminishes.
• Muscle strength and mass increase to better handle the next stimulus.
• By continuously challenging your muscles (longer, heavier, faster), your muscle strength and volume shoot up, provided you take enough rest in between and eat the right food.
• By repeating these steps constantly, you enhance your muscle strength and mass, bit by bit, rep by rep.

How fast do you lose muscle mass?

If you've been working out less or not at all for a while, your muscle mass decreases. Don't panic, it's not a quick process. Various studies show that muscle loss starts happening only after two to three weeks of not exercising (1, 2, 3). Detraining occurs when you stop lifting weights and hardly engage in any physical activity.

In those initial few weeks, the loss is minimal. Around five to six weeks in, your muscle mass starts decreasing more rapidly (4, 5). So, taking a few weeks off from workouts isn't immediately detrimental to your hard-earned muscles.

How quickly do you lose muscle strength?

Now that you know what to expect externally, you're probably wondering about your muscle strength. You won't lose it immediately either. Research indicates that taking two weeks off isn't an issue (6). It's only after three weeks of complete inactivity that muscle strength starts decreasing slowly (7). If you keep moving a bit and do light exercises occasionally, you extend that timeframe.

And your fitness?

The duration of your break determines how much your fitness regresses. Not working out for a week won't make much of a difference. If you manage to move around for about half an hour daily during your break, you can offset a regression quite well.

Your fitness starts declining if you do nothing for 3 to 5 weeks. By the way, your heart, bones, and joints still benefit from the fitness level you've built for years. So even if you completely stop, your health won't deteriorate within a few years.

Surviving a workout break

If you're out of the game for more than three weeks, consider limiting the setback with these tips.

1. Watch your calorie intake (you can't avoid it)

When you're not exercising, your body doesn't need extra calories to build muscles. Pay attention to your calorie intake. But also be careful not to consume too few calories, as this can lead to both fat and muscle loss. The trick is to maintain a precise balance.

2. Ensure you get enough protein

Proteins are essential building blocks for the body. Apart from the right number of calories, you should also continue getting enough proteins. This helps in preserving muscle mass (8). An easy way to do this is through a protein shake.

3. Keep moving

Everything is a gym, even your hotel room or garden. Keep your muscles active to slow down the process of losing muscle strength and mass.

It sounds logical, and research supports it too. Studies show that maintaining only about a third of your training level is enough to preserve your muscle mass (9).

Read more here: How to resume training after a break?