Maintaining Muscle???

The first day we decide to get our body toned and get more muscle, we are very focused on creating muscle.

It is fun seeing the result, getting muscle definition.

You feel so happy and maybe always staring at the mirror 😉 

 

BUT!!!

 

 

Once you get that muscle, have you ever had any trouble maintaining it?

I am sure a lot of people have felt this way,

and today I would like to explain some scientific side of maintaining muscle.

 

 

How do we lose it?

When we stop training, the first thing that happens is that our nervous system of the trained muscle will start becoming inactive. This only makes the muscle strength weaker, and this is different from your muscle mass getting smaller. However, if you don’t use this muscle for a long time, then your body assumes that this is the muscle you don’t need and the muscle will get smaller. As you can see, the muscle mass will not get small all of sudden, but the muscle strength will get weaker earlier.

 

How long does it take for the muscle mass to be lost?

On average someone who has never trained will gain about 15-20% of muscle strength in about 3 months of constant muscle training. If this person stops training, then he or she will lose the gained muscle in the same amount of time, about 3 months, if not trained. 

Yet, this totally depends on your body type, your lifestyle and also how many years you have been training. Muscle has an ability to memorise, and this is called muscle memory. When muscle has been trained for a long time, then the muscle will remember how to activate the nervous system and also the body will remember muscle as something that is essential to maintain its life. The longer you trained the slower we lose muscle. 

 

How often should we train to maintain our muscle?

It is said that training muscle once a week will let you maintain the muscle mass. Try to make your workout hard enough to get the muscle active.

 

Some people go crazy that if they don’t train for some days they will lose muscle all of sudden.

Don’t worry! 🙂

You will not lose muscle so easily, your hard work will not be lost that easily.

If you missed some days at the gym, it is okay.

Let’s enjoy every step of our journey.

After-all it is life and we have to live it! 

 

Reference:      Ishii, N. (2008). The Muscle Encyclopedia.

 

 

 

xxxx FitNessEmikoNess