Ever wondered what happens to your body if for whatever reason you take a workout hiatus?
It’s a sad but true fact that in order to keep your hard fought workout gains you have to keep working out. Staying fit, lean, strong, and looking and feeling good about yourself is a life long devotion.
In other words you have to “Use it, or Lose it”.
Skipping your workout one day isn’t going to affect you much, but giving up what got you there in the first place will.
So what happens if you stop working out? A few clients have asked me recently so i thought i’d break it down piece by piece for you:
1. MUSCLES SHRINK AND YOU GET FATTER
Your muscles won’t turn to fat they just get smaller. You also add fat tissue to your body.
Muscle and fat are 2 entirely different tissues, you can’t grow one into the other. It’s like an apple and orange. You can stay the same weight however, as you have lost muscle and added fat. I’ve heard this
from lots of people actually “i’m still doing fine, i’m the same weight”. Thats because you’re softer – you lost your hard earned muscle and threw on some fat.
“In a study of beginners who exercised for two months, their strength increased by 46 percent, and when they stopped training for two months, they lost 23 percent—half the gains they’d made,” says exercise scientist Wayne Westcott, Ph.D.
Within 6-8 months you can expect to have lost all your fantastic gains and returned to your old body that made you want to start working out in the first place.
I’ve also had clients think that giving up their weights workout and just doing cardio eg Mt Lofty hike would enable them to keep their hard worked for body. If you just do cardio and no weights, however, the same thing occurs. You lose all your muscle and just get skinnier and skinnier. You can entirely be really small or skinny yet have lots of bodyfat. Weights are a necessary component to looking great – it helps you retain your muscle, while you lose fat.
In other words you don’t want to lose fat AND MUSCLE. You will only get smaller. Do weights keep your muscle and lose the fat.
2. YOU LOSE YOUR LEVEL OF FITNESS – LACK OF ENERGY, DEPRESSION FOLLOW
After only a few days you start to lose cardiovascular fitness. You’ll find it harder to do the things you found so easy to do. You’re more out of “puff”. As soon as you go back and have a workout you’ll feel sick, want to vomit and find it agonisingly hard to do what you previously could.
Doctors and psychologists have always touted the benefits of fitness and weights in terms of improving mood. Weights and exercise suppress chemicals that cause depression. You might also feel grumpy, moody, cranky and get depression if you add weight.
OVERVIEW
Staying in shape, looking and feeling great are a lifetime devotion. Put in only 10 percent and thats what you get back. You need to workout with weights 2 times a week doing your entire body.
An extra 7000 calories equals 1 kg of fat gained. That is only an extra 500 calories per day for 2 weeks. Your workout is around that many calories plus whatever you ate…..or drank.
It’s never been easier to stay in shape. As seen on Channel 7 and Women’s Health & Fitness Magazine For as little as $12.50 per session you can also look the greatest you have ever in your life. Bodystyling Fitness with Marc D.
Stay fit, happy and healthy.
Marc D.
