I m 25 years old and have been going to the gym for the past 3 years. Recently, I took 10 days off due to illness and noticed that I lost muscle. This happens whenever I take a break from the gym.
Why did this happen? How can I avoid this muscle loss during breaks in training?
You won't be able to avoid muscle loss if you take signficant breaks from training. This is called deconditioning.
Illness will cause more loss than a simple break from training though, because your body may start to break down your muscle for energy. To avoid this, you need to try really hard to feed yourself well while you are sick.
Breaks are sometimes unavoidable, but in the long-run you should be still getting stronger, so don't worry too much.
Here are some ideas for how to avoid deconditioning during breaks:
Is common to lost your body shape if you stop training for like one week. So if u can try to do some simple exercise on each muscle group to keep ur muscle warm up unless u are sick or injured.
I went to Taiwan for a week and to keep my body shape i am doing push up, using my luggage as weight to do squad and deadlift. It isnt as heavy as the weight i carry for my gym training but it is enough to at least keep my muscle warm up at all time.
You're maintaining your muscle while resting after workouts. The resting period is when you're growing your muscle. NEVER overdo anything - i used to do it like that and wasn't worth it.
When you rest - take in protein rich foods or maybe some natural supplements and vitamins for speedy muscle growth and recovery.
