Oftentimes, I try to get to the gym the day before departing on a trip (knowing that I won’t have time to work out during the trip).
How long would the trip have to be before that last workout becomes useless? As an extreme example, if I’m going away for 6 months, I’m pretty sure that there would be no reason to go the gym the day before. But most trips are less than 7 days. Would it be worthwhile to do a chest workout on a Friday if I know that I won’t be doing another one for 7 days? Does this vary by body part?
I don’t do any cardio so this question is more related weight lifting, although I’d like to know the answer for both.
Because if you don’t workout for some period, you eventually revert back to how you were before the workout. It’s not like you can work out one time, and its benefits last forever.
Must be nice. Dunno how old you are, but I will be 46 soon. I can feel a difference in about 5 days.
I get the question. The way I see it, it depends on age. The older you are, the faster you deteriorate; thus, the more the last workout means. That said, I’d say for someone my age the answer is maybe a week; for a much younger guy, maybe a month. Keep in mind that it’s not just how much you deteriorate, it’s also how fast you spring back once you start working out again.
And yeah, consider working out on travel. Some hotels have gyms that are worthwhile. And don’t scoff at the idea of in-room calisthenics in conjunction with the use of stretchy elastic bands; done right, your workout will be excellent (there are several good books on the subject). Even if such workouts aren’t as good, they’re better than sitting on your ass watching TV.
I think the OP may be asking about a muscle gaining regimen, instead of just a fitness regimen. I can see if you’re seriously training to gain muscle and know you’re shortly going to be going away for a couple of months, there’s no reason to bust your ass for small gains that probably will disappear by the time you return.
Otherwise, if you follow the argument to it’s natural conclusion, there’s no point in working out ever because you’ll invariably have to lay off at some point. Even if you lose fitness during your break, you started off that break fitter than you would have been and that should benefit you. I just can’t see any reason to cram in a last minute workout if it’s going to be a real inconvenience.
I tried to find any hard numbers on muscle loss but couldn’t find much. The closest is this from Science Daily (in an article about hibernating bears):
[quote]
The researchers found that after 110 days of anorexia and confinement in the den, bears lost about 29% of their muscle strength. In comparison, humans on a balanced diet but confined to bed for 90 days have been reported to lose 54% of their strength. Other studies have shown that human astronauts in a weightless environment lose 9%–11% of their strength during a 17-day spaceflight.
[quote]
You lose a percentage of muscle mass so the more muslce you start off with the better. Plus, if it’s only 10% for astronauts over 17-days, it’s probably very small for a human in gravity over a week.
I’m 32. I’ve been weightlifting since I was 21. It is slowly becoming more difficult to get back into it after a break (sickness, holiday etc).
His question still lacks, shall we say, logic. If skipping exercise for a week is bad, why would he also skip his Friday workout to increase that downtime period to a week +1 day?
I’m very much aware that age, length of time he’s been exercising already, etc factors into this. If someone else wants to draw all that information out of him, be my guest.
Sorry about the poorly phrased question. I was in the middle of my after-lunch coma. The example about long trip was unnecessary.
I’m talking only about building muscle mass through anaerobic exercise. When you begin such a program, a personal trainer will typically tell you to not wait too long before your next workout (of the same body parts). If you wait “too long”, you will invariably regress back to how you were before beginning the program, rendering the workout useless. How long is “too long”?
