Consistency is always the focus of exercise programs, which can lead people to give up completely if they miss a few workouts. But a new study found that even after a 10-week break from strength training, it took very little time for people to get back to where they left off. It revealed fascinating new insights into the mechanism of muscle memory.

Researchers from the Faculty of Sports and Health Sciences at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland found surprising results in their study, which examined how to take a 10-week break in the middle of a resistance training program of 20 weeks affected muscle size and loss of strength.

In the study, a group of 22 participants trained twice a week, with a focus on strength and muscle size, for 20 consecutive weeks. In a second group, 22 participants followed the same routine for the first 10 weeks, before stopping completely mid-study and returning to twice-weekly workouts after 20 weeks for another 10 weeks.

What they discovered was surprising: Although muscle size decreased, strength didn’t decrease as much as expected, and once the workout routine resumed after the break, it only took them a few weeks to get back to where they were. they were before their vacation at the gym. .’

“During the first weeks after the break, progress was very rapid and after only five weeks of retraining, the level before the break was already reached,” said Eeli Halonen from the Faculty of Sports and Health Sciences .

Additionally, people who trained continuously for 20 weeks saw their gains decline after the first 10 weeks — and those who took a break quickly caught up and even surpassed them in some areas by the end of the study.

This is the first time that researchers have compared “recycling” routines with a continuous model.

“For continuous group training for 20 weeks, progress clearly slowed after the first 10 weeks,” adds Halonen. “This meant that there was ultimately no difference in muscle size or strength development between the groups.”

The participants, whose ages ranged from their late 20s to mid-30s, were physically active but had never participated in any long-term resistance training program.

Previous studies have shown that short breaks in a workout program don’t send people back to square one, but such a long break has not been tested. Interestingly, peak strength was better preserved during periods of no training and declined at a much slower rate than expected.

“This could be explained by the fact that changes in the nervous system may be more permanent than peripheral changes in the muscles,” Halonen said.

Naturally, the muscle size was reduced after the break and it took about five weeks to get back to the level of the continuous group, but this is good news for anyone who fears that an injury, vacation, illness or something something like a COVID-19 lockdown can mean starting from scratch after a leave of absence.

“Of course, the break slows down progress somewhat,” emphasizes Halonen, “but it is comforting to know that it is possible to reach the level before the break surprisingly quickly.”

The team will now examine how muscle memory works at the cellular and molecular levels, with the aim of better understanding how the body retains changes made by training.

“The physiological mechanisms of muscle memory are not yet fully understood,” noted lead researchers Juha Hulmi and Juha Ahtiainen, “and our next step is to further study the cellular and molecular changes in muscles that could potentially explain this phenomenon.

As the researchers note in the study: “Although training continuity is an important fundamental principle in physical activity, our results suggest that recreational RT (resistance training) practitioners should not overextend themselves. worry about an occasional 10-week training break, for example. once a year, provided that the RT carried out is effective and regular.”

The study was published in the journal Scandinavian Journal of Sports Medicine and Science.

Source: University of Jyväskylä