Muscle gain/loss ?

[J4CKO]

Just pondering this after MillitantAndy mentioned lost gains on the training thread and was pondering this the other day, what happens when someone gets into great shape and gains a lot of muscle, then stops for whatever reason. Ok we all know that the old adage "All his muscle turned to fat" cant happen, but what does happen, and if someone is trained, loses mass, then goes back to it, does it take as long again to make those gains or is their some memory aspect to it with muscles ?

[ThrottleBod]

Interested to see people's thoughts/ experiences of this too. I've trained for 2 1/2 years without a full week off. Recently torn a muscle in my stomach so I'm out for at least two months of any weight training.

To be honest I wanted a break anyway just not a forced one but find it hard to break the obsession/diet. I've stopped with the protein shakes but still eating healthy just a few cakes/pizzas/beers thrown in which I wouldn't of had before. I've lost a couple of pounds already so think I'll just keep losing as I was skinny/fat looking when I started. Ironically I feel better about how I look now I've stopped and can appreciate the gains I made which I couldn't see before!

[Hoofy]

The muscles shrink.

The "muscle turns to fat" thing probably came about because someone stopped training but continued to eat like they trained so just became fat.

[V8mate]

ThrottleBod said:

Interested to see people's thoughts/ experiences of this too. I've trained for 2 1/2 years without a full week off. Recently torn a muscle in my stomach so I'm out for at least two months of any weight training.

To be honest I wanted a break anyway just not a forced one but find it hard to break the obsession/diet. I've stopped with the protein shakes but still eating healthy just a few cakes/pizzas/beers thrown in which I wouldn't of had before. I've lost a couple of pounds already so think I'll just keep losing as I was skinny/fat looking when I started. Ironically I feel better about how I look now I've stopped and can appreciate the gains I made which I couldn't see before!

Don't alter your training diet too much. A protein shake, and even a 'portion' of creatine (perhaps half your training amount?) will continue to provide good fuel for your muscles.

[Crush]

Hoofy said:

The muscles shrink.

The "muscle turns to fat" thing probably came about because someone stopped training but continued to eat like they trained so just became fat.

That's what happened to me. Was eating 3 500 calories a day to maintain my weight when playing rugby and then suffered an injury which stopped me walking for three months.

Let's just say that the non-adjustment to my diet didn't help my knee injury

[popeyewhite]

J4CKO said:

Just pondering this after MillitantAndy mentioned lost gains on the training thread and was pondering this the other day, what happens when someone gets into great shape and gains a lot of muscle, then stops for whatever reason. Ok we all know that the old adage "All his muscle turned to fat" cant happen, but what does happen,

Muscle atrophies. But you'd need to be in traction and completely not use the muscle involved. Let's say a shoulder muscle and let's say you're used to training shoulders/chest twice a week. Let's assume you break your back skiing in a foreign country and are placed in a full upper body plaster cast for six weeks. You'd lose a lot of lean mass. However if you were in a back brace but could still move your shoulders then even just reaching up to retrieve a tin of beans from a cupboard would prevent atrophy. It the use...not the weight.

J4CKO said:

and if someone is trained, loses mass, then goes back to it, does it take as long again to make those gains or is their some memory aspect to it with muscles ?

No. It would take about the same time again. However someone who had already trained that bodypart previously would have the advantage of knowing how they respond to different training types, nutrition, recovery etc and may just regain mass slightly quicker. Neural pathways associated with the given movement would still be in place for a short time. There are steps that can be taken if one is totally immobilised: Observation imagery has been shown to involve functional equivalence in the cortex and excite the cortico-spinal tract, sending signals to the involved muscle that EMG can trace. Lots of research involving TMS into this at the moment. Basically - if you're laid up in bed ill for a long time then trying to imagine the muscle movements has been shown to activate the muscle similarly (but to a lesser extent) to the movements themselves.