But sometimes life throws you a curve - injury, holidays, vacations, de-motivated, or something else and you are either forced to stop or choose to stop.
For the sake of this discussion let's take out the injury option. If something injury related happens then you simply cannot perform, you must rest, rehabilitate, or recover from whatever has happened. It may be trauma, sports injury, or elective surgery. In those cases it is doctor's orders, nothing else.
But what if you make a conscious decision to go on a trip, take a break, or you just don't feel like it and blow it off? What happens?
Let me give you a heads-up and tell you what won't happen. You might lose some of the muscle mass and gain some fat during the break, but your muscle physiologically cannot turn to fat. So we need to put that wives tale to rest from the start.
However, here is what most likely would happen:
Muscular Strength: Studies have shown that muscular strength will return to pre-exercise levels after a 4 to 12 week break. This means if you keep a good diet you will be smaller but significantly weaker, a whole lot flabbier, and much less toned.
Muscular Size: Muscles will shrink after 4-12 weeks off. (Read Muscle Strength again.)
Cardio: Research shows you begin to lose aerobic conditioning as soon as two weeks. You will be more tired doing the same workout you did two weeks ago sooner than you are used to being.
Metabolism: When your muscles atrophy (shrink in size due to inactivity), your metabolism slows down. Therefore if you continue to eat the way you should during your weight training and eat the same amount, you will ultimately gain weight. Simply stated, when you are working out you need food as fuel. If you don't exercise and burn off the fuel, the food has to go somewhere. It is stored as fat.
Inside all of that there is a silver lining. Once you start exercising again it all comes back faster than the first time. It won't be days if you chose to take a long break but it won't be months either.
Moral of the story:
When you need a break - take it. If you are just having a bad day - try and simply get started with your workout. Inevitably, you will get motivated to continue and finish it. And then you won't have to deal with any of the above.
