What happens when you take a break from the gym?

For beginners, it can be particularly frustrating, given that they’re still working on adding good form to their muscle memory, along with the confidence it takes to start lifting slightly heavier. But it’s not all doom and gloom once you know what happens to the body when you take a break from your usual routine. This break, when longer and a week or ten days, can lead to detraining.

“Reducing the frequency, volume, and/or intensity of your training will slowly impair your performance measures such as strength, power, speed, endurance, and flexibility. However, this doesn’t happen instantly if you don’t train for a few days. Instead, it’s a slow process linked to your overall level of fitness and each particular physical skill,” says a piece titled The Dreaded Detraining: Why You Shouldn’t Fear It on the fitness blog, polar.com.

The process has certain timelines. Most athletes who play sport might see sprinting as their first drop in metrics but that might not matter to most regular gym-goers. Two weeks of no training could lead to a decrease of VO2 max levels between 4.5 percent to 10 percent. “After 5 weeks there is a decrease of 10.1%, following 56 days a decrease of 13% and after 2 months a decrease of 20%,” says a research titled, Cardiorespiratory and metabolic consequences of detraining in endurance athletes published on the National Library of Medicine's website. Scientific findings of VO2 levels can be divided on the subject of detraining depending on which athletes were part of the research, but there seems to be consensus that you can maintain for levels “by incorporating a single weekly high-intensity training (HIT) session alongside reduced low-intensity training volume during an 8- week transition period.”

Endurance and stamina are one part of this. The other, more concerning part for those who also train for strength and aesthetics, is losing muscle mass and the ability to lift like they could before the break. In gym jargon, all this can be grouped into one term: gains. The findings in this department are pleasantly surprising. A paper in the International Journal of Exercise Science, titled Three Weeks of Detraining Does Not Decrease Muscle Thickness, Strength or Sport Performance in Adolescent Athletes, proves exactly what it says.

This is backed by multiple other opinions, one of which says something very fascinating. The more you train, the more you make your muscles ready for a break. So the harder you work, the longer the vacation you can take. Unlike most jobs, the work you do in a gym is actually worth it. “Because those muscles already have better blood flow, better blood supply, and are able to work harder without starving their fibers of blood flow, it takes a long time for those blood vessels to shrivel up and die if the muscle is not used,” says a piece titled How Long It Takes To Rebuild Muscle After a Gym Break on health.com.

The most long-lasting part of training seems to be muscle memory. If you’re a beginner, but have learnt the basics of certain moves, then you will not forget them in a few weeks. This part gets easier for more experienced lifters, but they may also face a bigger drop in strength if they take a very long break. There are, however, many advantages to taking a break from working out. It is better when done with a plan, but even if it happens suddenly, your body will bounce back stronger. The debilitating soreness will go, the injuries niggles will repair and the body is well rested for better lifts. Seeing how the body reacts is a good test for the athlete as well, and gives one an idea of what motivates them.