Japan -
Cornish_Celt - 11-01-2019
Iâve not been in the gym for 4 weeks now, and for some that would be panic stations, and tbh it would have been for me many years ago
There are two issues we face in a long layoff, muscle loss and fat gain
People exercise to help maintain the balance and have a good level of body composition, so stopping will induce a bit of anxiety for many, we enjoy the results of our hard work
Iâve just been in Japan for 2 weeks and was so busy sight-seeing and having fun, combined with gyms not really being a thing, jet lag, and not being that bothered, I didnât exercise, and I didnât exercise before that as I was ill pre japan
I knew that realistically my muscle loss was going to be very minimal in a month, letâs just say 1 lb for arguments sake, its likely even less than that. Most get panicked because they âappearâ to be losing a lot of muscle
But youâll be surprised how much bigger your muscles look when you are regularly in the gym, we store a lot of water and glycogen for performance benefits in our muscles, so we âlookâ full
So I do feel like Iâve shrunk considerably, but its cool because I know as soon as I get a solid week of training under my belt next week Iâll pretty much be back to where I started âlookâ wise
Performance wise that will take a little longer, Iâve done one light full body training session for 30 minutes (to ease in) and one rugby training session since Iâve been back and I feel unfit and weak, but whatever, it will come back over the next 10 days or so, Iâll put the work in, Iâm not worried
The reason I am 100% cool with all this is because my #1 goal was accounted for, I didnât gain body fat in those 4 weeks. Before I went away I continued to eat well just ate less, and while I was away I didnât eat breakfast, just lunch and dinner, and was doing 20-25,000 steps per day sight-seeing, so had a high level of energy burn and an appropriate intake 🤸
Please DONâT panic with time off from the gym
you are in control of more of the variables than you think, sure youâll lose a bit of fitness, sure youâll look a bit smaller and less athletic (something guys are often concerned with), but itâs all natural shifts
Most in this situation will have a break and move less AND eat more, this will mean youâll look smaller and put on weight, so you will have more work to do after your break, but thatâs cool as well, itâs OK, just know itâs all fixable soon after
Why write this post? To merely let you know itâs OK if you asked most friends around you they would probably say you look fine despite the break, we just magnify the difference because we care so much about the difference
Iâve never taken this long off the gym in a very very long time, but hey, whatever
Iâm happy Iâll be back on point in 10 or so days