What really happens when you take two and a half months off from strength training?
This break could be from a major injury, an illness or even doctor’s orders to recover from surgery.
A study from the University of Jyväskylä’s Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences explored the effects of a 10 week break from weight workouts on maximum strength and muscle size.
This research involved two groups: one who trained continuously for 20 weeks and another who paused training midway for 10 weeks.
Two and a Half Months Away from the Gym
The findings revealed that taking a break had minimal impact on the overall development of maximum strength and muscle size.
Both groups showed similar results after 20 weeks, indicating that the temporary pause did not significantly hinder progress.
During the break, participants maintained their maximum strength better than their muscle size.
When training resumed, individuals quickly regained their muscle size, reaching pre-break levels within just five weeks.
Eeli Halonen, a researcher involved in the study, pointed out that while continuous training showed initial progress, the rate of improvement slowed after the first 10 weeks.
This suggested that a break did not detrimentally affect long-term goals, as both groups achieved comparable outcomes despite different training schedules.
The phenomenon of quickly regaining muscle size after a break is known as “muscle memory.”
The researchers acknowledge that the physiological mechanisms behind this phenomenon are not yet fully understood.
Future studies will investigate the cellular and molecular changes in muscles that could explain how muscle memory works.
Interestingly, maximum strength appeared to be more stable during the training hiatus.
Halonen speculated that this might be due to more lasting changes in the nervous system compared to the muscles themselves.
This finding offers reassurance for those who occasionally miss training sessions: A break of up to 10 weeks seems manageable for maintaining strength and muscle size, provided that regular and progressive training occurs throughout the year.
Some Gym Enthusiasts May Disagree
There are plenty of muscle and strength building enthusiasts – especially those in middle age – who would disagree somewhat with these reassuring findings.
For example, a middle age woman (who intensely and heavily lifts weights) will be instructed by her plastic surgeon to lay off the weights for FOUR weeks following her face lift.
Sure, resumption of the leg extension or lat pull-down may not seem all that affected by the absence, but she’ll definitely notice the strength deficit in her heavy deadlifts.
It can take many weeks for her to get back to 5 x 225 in the deadlift.
Thus, this kind of research needs to look at specific age groups as well as specific exercises.
Giant compound moves such as the deadlift, back squat and bench press typically take the longest time to achieve pre-absence strength levels – particularly in people over 50.
In fact, Halonen cautioned that breaks can still slow progress.
The individuals who took a break achieved the same results in a total of 30 weeks as those who trained continuously for 20 weeks.
This indicates that although muscle memory allows for a rapid return to previous levels, it’s important to stay consistent with training to maximize gains.
Participants in this study were young Finnish men and women who were active but lacked prior experience in systematic resistance training.
The research was published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports.
