Life is a rollercoaster. Sometimes you’re consistent and training is going well, and other times it’s an absolute shit show. As a wise and popular meme once said - “sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe shit”. There are times where will be able to train hard and consistently, and other times where we may skip training all together because of certain priorities push it down the pecking order.It’s a tough pill to swallow. Knowing that all of your hard earned work may get flushed down the toilet simply because you missed a few sessions. While we may think skipping a few sessions will leave us starting back from square one, we have to ask ourselves…Is having time away from the gym really going to be that bad?
I have come as the bearer of good news, even though the situation is sub-optimal for most, we will all most likely be able to hang on to our beloved gains, be it strength, muscle mass or endurance. Believe it or not, there is research that suggests that not all is lost when taking some time away from our regular routines. Science is in fact on our side when it comes to maintaining muscle and strength during periods of very low volume training or even when not training at all.
Although these findings provide a glimmer of hope for many of us, rest assured they should not be used as evidence to justify slothery or throwing in the towel. My hopes are that this article will ease the anxiety and concerns many of you may have and put your mind at rest if you do have to take some time away from training.
Detraining & Strength
*Do not confuse detraining with deloads. Detraining is the cessation of training whereas deloads are periods of reducing volume and/or intensity to reduce fatigue and allow recovery to occur.
For beginners, the research seems to suggest that we can take about 3 weeks off before beginning to lose significant amounts of strength.
Ogasawara et (2013) separated two groups of untrained men into continuous resistance training (CTR) & periodic resistance training (PTR) for a period of 24 weeks. While the CTR group trained continuously through the 24 week training period, the PTR group trained for 6 weeks, detrained for 3 weeks and then retrained for 6 weeks – continuing for the entire study duration. What they found was that by the end of the study, strength gains between both groups were similar as shown below. Even with 6 weeks less training, the PTR group made similar strength gains.
Another study in beginners, this time by Ochi et al (2018), found small decreases in strength (isometric) after 3 weeks of detraining following an 11 week training block.
When it comes to trained individuals, the research seems to be pretty consistent showing that we can hold onto strength gains from around 2-4 weeks before any significant drop offs. In the short term, detraining for about 2 weeks doesn’t seem to show much of a change as shown in Hwang et al (2017) and Mujika & Padilla (2001). Mujika also showed that strength performance in general is readily retained for upto 4 weeks in strength and speed athletes.
When we stretch out the detraining times even further, we see a reasonably expected drop off. Mujika & Padilla’s follow up study showed force production reducing from 7% to 12% during periods of inactivity from 8 to 12 weeks respectively. A systematic review (27 studies) on rugby and American football player strength showed decay rates began to increase anywhere from 5-16 weeks after – this same study also showed 3 weeks of detraining had no impact.
Stretching it right out, the below diagram from Bosquet et al 2013 shows a pretty neat summary of the relationship between increases in detraining time and strength levels (included athletes and non-athlete populations.).
An older study (this one’s for the women out there), showed some pretty remarkable findings regarding detraining and strength. Women completed a 20 week strength training block, detrained for 30-32 week and then retrained for 6 weeks. What they found was that they were able to hold onto their 1RM even through the detraining period and then saw an increase in 1RM strength during retraining. Pretty neat if you ask me.
So what’s happening? It’s thought that in the early phases of detraining (< 3 weeks) the decrease we see is most likely neural related, with further decreases (> 3 weeks) mostly due to changes in muscle properties such as fibre type changes and overall decreases in muscle size. But as we can see from a majority of the strength data discussed, the general trend seems to show that decreases in strength occur after ~3 weeks of inactivity.
What happens if we can still train, but we have to drastically reduce our training volume? Glad you asked. It seems like it doesn’t take much volume for us to maintain strength training adaptations, even if only completing ⅓ of previous training volumes. We also see elite kayakers being able to maintain both squat and bench strength across 5 weeks by just having one high intensity session per week. In soccer players, just the one ‘maintenance’ session per week allowed players to hold on to strength (and power) gains across 8-12 weeks. Seems like it doesn’t take much to at least maintain all of our hard work.
So it turns out a reduction in training isn't going to result in huge losses in strength. Phew! Keep an eye out for the next instalment... Detraining & Hypertrophy. Does a break from the gym mean our clothes might feel a little loose?
I'll let you know next week
Thanks for reading
Dave B