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Hello and welcome to another episode of the Leo Alves podcast and in today's episode we are going to dive into like the strength training, muscle gain
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uh work out side of things just because I decided that I kind of wanted to make the theme of today's podcast episode what happens when you stop working out and then like
kind of just have like ten questions that branch off of that subject.
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What Happens When You Stop Working Out?
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Um
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Reason being just because I don't really feel like I've ever discussed this in any real depth before.
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I probably have touched upon it.
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I've made, you know
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like almost 300 podcast episodes by now that I'm sure I have at some point, but I think uh an episode in which I just really go into depth on the subject could be quite good
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Uh 'cause again, I've got quite a bit to say and I've never really said it before and there's always um and I guess now's my chance, I should say.
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So I've got 10 questions in front of me and I guess I'll just get stuck in.
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How Quickly Do You Lose Muscle?
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So question one, how quickly do you lose muscle after stopping training?
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And honestly, the answer is I would say much slower than I think many people realize.
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I would say within let's say, you know, and this is going to be roughly speaking because ultimately it's going to depend on the individual
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um and and it it like uh their training history, how long they've been consistent for, etc.
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etc.
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But I would say probably within the first one to three weeks, like
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What people will notice is like a feeling of reduced muscle fullness.
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Like there's less glycogen stored in the muscle.
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Um
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And like you're gonna see smaller pumps and that's why like you could have stopped training for like one to three weeks and you're going to look and feel flatter.
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Like when you look in the mirror, it's like, oh damn, my muscles don't look as fuller.
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And I'm
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I'm sure if you've like been in this position you can relate to exactly what I'm saying.
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You're like, ah, you know, I I I do know what you mean.
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Um but the thing is, just because you you look a flatter in the mirror
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It doesn't actually necessarily mean you've lost muscle because I would say muscle loss actually starts happening more around like two to four weeks.
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So a little bit longer
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And I'm talking like even and you know what?
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On top of that, I'm talking more like complete inactivity as well.
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Because like I said, you know, it it does still vary dependent on age, training history, diet, activity levels.
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Um
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Are you bedridden during this time or are you still going hiking?
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Are you doing rock climbing?
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Like it, you know, it's going to it that's going to
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That's going to you know add a lot of context to the answer where it can be taken down many ways.
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So again, I am generally speaking, but I would say if someone has trained consistently for two years, you know, takes a two-week holiday, doesn't strength train at all
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I wouldn't be worried about muscle loss during that time.
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You know, now, okay, is it a month off?
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Some loss is going to stop being possible, yes, absolutely.
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Several months off?
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Yes.
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Now we're talking meaningful losses
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And that's where I would say yeah real differences are going to start being made.
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Um question number two, how much strength will you actually lose?
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How Much Strength Do You Lose?
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And that's quite different to the first question.
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So you're probably thinking, Neo, you just answered that.
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No.
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So the first question was how quickly do you lose muscle after you stop training?
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The second is how quickly do you lose strength?
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And I would say actually strength tends to drop a bit faster than muscle.
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And that's because you have to remember something.
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Strength isn't just muscle size, it's also skill.
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Coordination, technique, confidence under the load that you're doing, nervous system adaptations as well.
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So let's say a lifter who benches 100 kg for five reps
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They might come back after three weeks off and only manage, I don't know, 90 to 95 kg for five reps.
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And
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I do want to say that doesn't necessarily mean they've lost like 5-10% of their muscle.
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What is more likely going on here is like they're just a little bit rusty.
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And the encouraging part is that you know strength usually comes back very quickly.
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Once training resumes as well.
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Um for someone who's trained for years, I would say one week is like virtually nothing, two weeks off maybe a very little.
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So it's it's a bit similar uh three to four weeks off
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You know, you you do start to notice some strength loss, but it's not disastrous, but several months off, yeah, okay, you're going to have mi meaningful losses now.
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Um
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But the thing is, muscle memory helps regain it much faster than building it the first time round.
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The same you know what, I can say the same thing for the first question as well.
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Like if you've done it
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Like doing it for the first time is challenging, but if you've done it before, you've lost it and then you're working your way back up again is going to be easier because
again muscle memory is a thing.
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Um you've done it before, you can gain it back as easily the second time.
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And I have heard like
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Muscle memory actually like lasts up to four.
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You know what?
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Do not quote me on this because I think this is just something I remember reading about in a study and I could be wrong here, but I think it I've heard it lasts for about 10
years
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Like up to ten years.
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If you've done it before within like the last ten years, it's going to be easier to get there the second time round.
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And you know what?
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In regard to what I'm discussing, I think quite a good analogy is for like let's say you're learning a language, but then after you've been and you've been consistent
with learning that language, but suddenly out of nowhere you take one month off or six weeks.
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You're not going to suddenly forget everything you've learned, but you might be a little bit slower recalling let's say vocabulary, or you might make some more
mistakes at first when you start speaking again.
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But the knowledge is still largely there and it comes back much faster than when you first learned it.
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And in that scenario, muscle and strength they behave quite similarly
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The body is generally more forgiving than people think.
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And I think that's quite important to remember.
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Um, so I wouldn't say I I would say the bigger risk isn't ever taking a few weeks off, it's more so convincing yourself you've lost everything
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And then staying away for another six months because you feel disheartened about missing like one month, for example.
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Is Cardio Enough To Maintain Muscle?
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Um question number three, is cardio enough to maintain muscle?
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Well, no, not really.
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Cardio is it's a very different adaptation to building muscle.
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Um and don't get me wrong, some people like if this was in Threads for example, people would be like
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Hey, but you know and and and they'd be quite angry because I didn't say ex b exactly what they said and then like cardio is still amazing for cardiovascular
adaptations, how dare you discourage people from say it's like no
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Like I'm saying, it's just very different to building muscle and cardio, it's not going to be enough to maintain muscle ultimately just because especially long term
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Just because it's a very different adaptation.
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Like um you're working a different like for like I said, cardio cardio is still great for your cardiovascular health
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Absolutely do it for that.
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Don't think I'm telling you not to do it.
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You should do it.
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It's good for you.
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But if we're speaking specifically for, okay, is it going to help you maintain muscle?
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No.
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That would be like me playing chess to help me with my language learning.
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Uh you know, might there be some crossover in regard regard to like memory recall skill like type of skill?
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Yeah, maybe
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Well it's not, you know, ultimately I need to learn the language and not play uh less chess, more actual language learning.
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Uh same here, more uh strength training, less
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Cardio if the goal is actual muscle and strength gain.
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What Happens If You Stop Lifting But Keep Eating Well?
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Um question number four, what happens if you keep your diet good but stop lifting?
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You know what, this is a fantastic question.
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Because I'm sure at some point in life when you've been consistent with like working out, life kind of forces you to stop working out for a while and then you're
thinking, crap, like
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I should still do my best to be consistent with my nutrition, right?
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Like it's still going to matter, right?
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Like, and I would say like what's likely going to happen.
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Okay
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In this definition, we're going to say you're the key word is you're keeping your diet good.
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So we're going to assume you're keeping your protein high still.
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You're eating like at around maintenance calories.
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And I would say in that scenario, like
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Let's say you stop lifting short term that's really going to help you like basically lose no muscle because you're keeping your protein high your calories are about
maintenance
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But now let's say your protein let's say you're actually your nutrition isn't very good, like maybe you're in a calorie deficit consistently, protein intake is very
low.
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That's the type of like behavioral trait that
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long term starts to add up and that's like a good recipe for muscle loss because now you're not lifting you're not you're not well you're also not eating eating adequate
protein which really helps you
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um hang on to very valuable muscle as well.
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So now you're under eating protein too.
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So I would say what happens if you keep your diet good but stop lifting?
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Like it depends how long is this period of stopping lifting for because
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I would say short term, it's going to really help you keep muscle, but long term, you can only, and I'm going to say long term here, let's say longer than six weeks, two
months especially.
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Um
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You can only eat good, quote unquote, for so long without working out until you s because obviously you you you eventually do need that stimulus on the muscle in which
your w uh resistance training
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uh to help you to to to help you like keep that muscle and then start to build it again um and uh and good trition good nutrition during a phase of no lifting can definitely
just help
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uh slow down the process sort of any potential muscle loss, but it's not going to stop it completely if it just keeps going on for a long period.
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But it's definitely a good thing.
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Like if you're if you can't train for whatever reason, do still keep your nutrition good, still eat your fruit and veg, still keep your fibre intake high.
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You know, protein, calories, like all these things matter.
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um because most people think oh I can't lift so therefore I'm not going to care about compare uh care about my nutrition.
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Those are the people that lose muscle mass faster.
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Those are the people who gain body fat at a faster rate.
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Uh and and these things can make a difference.
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Um, especially when you think like our fitness journey is like a lifetime thing.
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Our health is like a lifetime thing.
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This isn't like something that should be done in just periods of intensity, because that sounds quite exhausting as well.
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Um because then you just get stuck in these cycles.
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What Happens If You Keep Lifting But Stop Tracking Calories?
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Question number five, what happens if you keep lifting but stop tracking calories?
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This is a great question as well because I'm sure a lot of people fit in this scenario.
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The thing is, like you can still make progress without calorie tracking.
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Many people are
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You know, real life examples of that.
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Um I think this is going to be such an individualistic response because you know you get some people who might have tracked calories for two weeks
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And uh and they've only just started lifting kind of thing.
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And then you get other people who've been tracking calories for years and then they're like one day, oh I do need to stop actually, I've just been doing this for so long.
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What's the point of continuing?
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Um and they've also been working out for a long time.
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I feel like this second group that I just mentioned would get a lot more value from from maybe pivoting away from tracking calories at least for a while
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And I would say what would happen to this group?
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Um probably not much because they probably picked up a lot of habits already from their calorie tracking
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Like the chances are they're pretty consistent with eating similar foods each day.
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They know more or less how much protein they roughly need to eat, even if they don't track it.
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They just know like instinctively from portion sizes, um, frequency throughout the day
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Uh and again that has been picked up just from consistently tracking your calories for so long.
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But I would say for the former group where maybe they haven't been tracking very long, they haven't been working out for very long either
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They'd probably be shooting themselves in the foot a bit just because again, tracking brings a lot of awareness and it's just a level of awareness that most people
simply do not have who have been maybe struggling with their health and fitness for many years.
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And uh and I feel like having that awareness can massively help.
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So if you stop, like I don't want to say you're going to regress or you're going to ruin all your results because again, you can still make progress without calorie
tracking.
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For sure.
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It just adds more clarity.
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And I I think ultimately it's going to depend on the person.
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For some people, it's just not really going to make a difference at all.
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For others, yeah, you you might lose some results because you lose that level of clarity and uh just having a good idea of what exactly it is you're you're doing.
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Um because, you know, guesstimating
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I guess the mating is fine.
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I I like to go through periods in life where I do and then I like to go through periods where I check as well.
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But um
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I think I think this is just one of those questions that could be answered in so many different ways that it's hard to give quite a specific response, even generally
speaking.
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But I do hope what I have said does help add some clarity.
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Can You Take A Month Off Without Ruining Progress?
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Question number six.
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Can you take a month off without ruining your progress?
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Okay, it would be good to know what a month off is.
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Is it a month off of working out?
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Is it a month off of I don't know, not caring about your nutrition?
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I'm going to assume
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We're going to say a month off of everything.
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Just not even like you're on this like really long vacation hypothetically for one month, which is quite nice.
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Um
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And you're not working out, you're not caring, you're not being mindful of your nutrition.
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We don't have to say you're not caring, but you're not being really mindful.
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You're just taking you're winging each day, taking it as it comes, kind of just eating whatever you fancy.
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I would say yeah you could without ruining your progress.
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Of course it's going to depend on your starting point, like if you've been doing this for years.
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Yeah, it's not gonna make a difference.
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Um if you've just started
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Well you've not got much you've not made much progress to you know or r to to have anything to I guess even quote unquote and I say I'm saying this word because it was used in
the question ruin
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If anything, you're just kind of like taking a step back a bit and kind of going back to where you started again, depending on how long you've done this for.
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But I would say a month off, generally speaking, is probably like the upper limit.
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I would say more than that and you're starting to really slip out of
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Just um again, I don't even want to say ruining your progress, but just positive habits because when you try to re uh introduce positive habits again like consistent
strength training, good nutrition, it's going to get harder because of course it's going to get harder because you haven't
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You've you've not been doing it.
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And the longer you've not done a habit for, the tougher it is to get back to being consistent with that same habit again
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Um so I think that's more the thing I would be wary about rather than even just like pro ruining quote unquote progress because um
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It's really critical to keep these uh habits consistently in check.
14:43
How Long Does It Take To Regain Results?
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Uh question number seven, how long does it take to get your results back?
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I would say like of course ultimately it depends on how long you stopped for um I would say I would say quicker than most people realize
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You know, if you stopped for a week, you could probably you probably won't feel like you never stopped after training consistently again for like 10 days.
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I'm throwing random numbers out just based on experience of training myself and many other people, especially one-to-one online
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On that note, if you want to work with me and become a one-to-one online fitness member, you can sign up via the show in the the via the link in the show notes of this podcast
episode.
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Everything is there, how it works, pricing, what you can expect, what to do.
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So everything's there, you can just click the link and check it out.
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If you're curious
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Um but I wouldn't say how long does it take to get your results back?
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Yeah, I think it's A qu quicker than more peop most people realise, um assuming you're consistent when you get back
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And um and like maybe the amount of time that you were off if you're off for a year uh I mean if you were off for one well yeah bloody hell
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Uh if you were off for one month, you could probably see like after a month of consistency again, it will feel like you never stopped.
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Probably the same for the two months, for example.
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Um
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And again, it does depend how long you've been training for.
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And I know I keep saying that, but I feel like this type of uh question, um, which again I mean this type of theme, which this episode is based around, what happens when you
stop working out
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It really does massively depend on how long you've been doing this for more than anything.
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And with the longer you've been doing it, the more the the the more likely you are to just not have it affect you
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But yeah, I think the how long does it take to get your results back is probably quicker than you in fact would realize.
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And that's why I feel like a lot of people get discouraged after stopping.
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I'm just like, you know what, just start?
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Like you won't even feel like you stopped at all
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give it a few weeks of consistency and uh and I think if a lot of people realize that they'd be much more willing to get back on it sooner.
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Because the issue isn't even the stop itself
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Um based on my experience, it's like okay, you s you went away for three weeks and then maybe for that first week back you were so out of routine you didn't even start.
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So now you stopped for a month
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Um and a lot of people are just like I've stopped for a month, like I just feel like I've regressed so much because now they feel flatter in the mirror, they've been out of
these positive habits, they're like, you know what
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I'm just gonna leave it.
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The issue is never actually that month based on my experience.
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The issue is always how you react to the to that month.
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Like if you stop for a month, but just go straight back on it and we're consistent again
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Like I said, in a few weeks it will feel like you never stopped.
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But the the the issue is always how people react to that because after the month, they're like by week five or week six, they're like, Yeah, I'm just leaving it now.
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And now you're genuinely regressing
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Um so it's always mentally about how you are going to react.
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What’s The Minimum Needed To Maintain Muscle?
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Question number eight, last three questions.
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What's the minimum you can do to maintain your physique?
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I would say it's much less than people probably realize.
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Specific figures I don't remember now, but it's
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Definitely much less than people realise.
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There's been a lot of research done on this.
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I think it's like a couple of sets per body part
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Each week.
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I could be wrong, but I don't think I'm far from that.
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I haven't checked this um I haven't checked the research on this for a while.
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I have read into it before.
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It's pro
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Like probably like two or three sets per body pot.
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Like you could probably do one s um three sets of leg extension in a w like weekly and that's enough to maintain.
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And I think that surprises a lot of people, but you know what's probably true.
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And obviously it depends on the exercise.
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Again, how experienced you are.
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But yeah, three weeks of uh three sets of deadlift per week
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Three sets of squats.
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Um or maybe you know what it might even be one set.
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I can't remember, but it's something solo.
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And do you what do you know I should have checked this before the podcast episode
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um because that's on me a bit, but I know it's much less than people realize.
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To grow, it's a different story.
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You're going to need you're going to need more.
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You're going to need more sets for sure
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and like comfortably more than I just mentioned but to to maintain you can get away with much much less this and again my guess is probably about one to three sets uh per
body part per week um
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Feel free to check on the back of this and I bet I'm not far off.
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I'll be surprised if I am.
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Um what's worse unless the research has drastically changed, which I don't think it has, at least at the time of recording this
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Uh question question number nine, what's worse, stopping completely or training inconsistently?
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Is Inconsistent Training Better Than Stopping Completely?
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Of course stopping completely is worse.
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In which world would train cons inconsistently be worse than stopping completely?
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Doing something is always better than doing nothing.
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Uh like 100% of the time there's no scenario where stopping completely is going to be better than uh training inconsistently.
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Is training inconsistently ideal?
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No, it's not ideal.
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Sometimes life just forces us to though, and that's much better than stopping completely.
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Um what's better than training in consistently though?
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Of course it's training consistently.
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Uh question number 10, final question
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Biggest Mistakes When Returning To The Gym
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What's the biggest mistake people make when returning to the gym?
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I think a lot of people when they return to the gym for the first time in months, let's like say six months a year
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Is they're so eager to get back to where they were before.
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And this isn't the only mistake.
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There's other common mistakes, but this is a common one I see.
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They're so eager to get back to where they were before.
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There's such a rush that they try and lift exactly what they were lifting before.
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So let's say they were lifting I'm gonna throw random numbers out there.
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Let's say they were lifting 100 kg on the deadlift.
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They'll just get back after like eight months off and try and do 100 kg again
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It's like that is not a smart idea.
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You've not been training for a long time and this is how injuries happen.
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I've seen it and I've heard of it a lot.
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It's like after a long period of time off, you're going to need some patience initially.
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Remember it's a marathon, it's not a sprint.
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I know that's a cliche, but it's true
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Be very patient with yourself in the first few weeks.
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The first few sessions are definitely about setting those baseline numbers again.
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Getting familiar with what I was saying earlier, like the skills, the techniques, building back up building that like those motor connections back up again.
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And um and just familiarizing yourselves with the exercises.
20:49
You know what?
20:49
Yeah, I think there was a period from like 2020 to like 2023 where I didn't barbell deadlift once.
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Which is wild to say out loud, but it wasn't out of choice.
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Um I think it was basically because in that time it might have been twenty twenty-one to twenty twenty-three or twenty twenty-four, it was something like that.
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But basically within that time
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I didn't attend.
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I attended like five different gyms and by pure coincidence there wasn't a single gym that had a deadlift area like there were that had an area where I could deadlift and
a barbell and bumper plates
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So within that time, I couldn't deadlift barbell deadlift and I was just like doing dumbbell Romanian deadlifts which um I remember was actually a huge reason as to why
I ended up changing gyms at the end because like this new one opened near me.
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And I went to it for just to look around and I was like, oh my gosh, there's a bumper there's a there's a deadlifting platform, there's bumper plates here.
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I miss deadlifting so much, I'm gonna join this gym and I did.
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It was a b it was one of the biggest reasons why I joined a new gym.
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What as soon as a new gym opened near me that had that um that equipment
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But um I w anyway, the reason why I bring this up isn't because I just want to tell you my life story.
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The reason why I bring this up is because I remember after not deadlifting for about three or four years, the first few times I deadlifted again
22:11
almost felt a little bit weird.
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And you know what?
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As I was doing it, I'll be honest, it didn't feel too bad.
22:17
Like it felt like, okay, I haven't done this for a while, but it wasn't too bad.
22:20
It was I recorded my form and I watched it back and I was like, oh crap.
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Like that's a that's like
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That's worse than it felt like.
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That looks worse than it felt like.
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And it was just- it just showed that I had stopped for quite a while.
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And this is coming from someone who was a very competent deadlifter before.
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I think the most I've ever deadlifted on a one rep max
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I will I'll be honest the deadlift has never has never been my strongest thing.
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And I've never like tried to speci specialize in it.
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I've always just been quite casual with my barbell deadlifting.
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It's something I like to do, but
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I don't go hardcore into it, but I think the most I've ever deadlifted is probably like one rep max, 150 kg, maybe 155.
22:59
Um
23:01
And uh you know what I would be quite curious to go through a phase where I go hard on that again, but I've just got other priorities now um with like training um but yeah like
23:11
And and again, that was so obviously I was quite competent with deadlifting.
23:15
And even then for me after quite a while off, I was like crap, like and I was training consistently throughout that entire time.
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I just didn't bar bow deadlift.
23:22
So
23:22
It just shows that when you start again at the gym, yeah, you you're going to need the level of patience.
23:27
Um and uh being uh is kind to yourself the right word, maybe, maybe not, but
23:33
Yeah, you're just gonna realize like what you could do eight, ten, twelve months ago isn't what you're going to be able to do immediately in the first few sessions.
23:41
I'm not saying you're not going to get back there, you absolutely can and will, and I'm sure you'll surpass it if you could if you are consistent.
23:48
But initially you're just going to have to train mindfully and be smart, be sensible so you don't injure yourself.
23:53
Because I've seen people get back to training after like a year off and try and do exactly what they were doing before and hurt themselves
24:00
Um, so yeah, that's probably the biggest mistake I see people make when returning to the gym.
24:02
Final Thoughts: How Quickly Do You Lose Fitness After Stopping
24:05
Otherwise, I hope you enjoyed this podcast episode.
24:07
Again, if you uh enjoy this podcast episode, do leave me a review.
24:10
And uh if you want to become a one-to-one online fitness member, then you can sign up via the link in the show notes of this podcast episode to become a one-to-one online
fitness member.
24:18
Otherwise, take care and I'll see you in the next podcast episode
