How long does it take to lose muscle if you don’t train?
Beginners: 3 weeks
Advanced: 4 weeks
“But why do I feel and look smaller even after 1 week?”
Your muscles lose glycogen (carbohydrates) and water stored in the muscle cells
How long does it take to lose strength if you don’t train?
Beginners: 3 weeks
Advanced: 4 weeks
How long does it take to lose endurance if you don’t train?
Beginners can maintain endurance for at least 2 weeks without any training.
Advanced athletes will lose 6-20% performance at around 4 weeks.
How can you maintain muscle?
💪🏻Stay active
💪🏻Do 1/3 of the volume
This means, that if you usually do 10 weekly sets for your chest, doing only 3-4 sets will maintain your muscle as long as you maintain the weight used.
How to maintain strength?
💪🏻Train once per week
💪🏻1/3 to 1/9 of the volume
💪🏻Using eccentric training will help maintain strength for longer.
How to maintain endurance?
Do 10-40% of volume keeping the intensity
Training frequency:
Beginners: reduce by 50-70%
Athletes: reduce by no more than 20-30%
Of course, there will be individual differences but these guidelines will give you a good starting point.
