What happens if you stop working out for 1-2 weeks?

Question

I have been a little sick, busy, and a tiny bit lazy this past week and havent gone to the gym. I've only been working out for about 3 months, but I was seeing some great results. But now I notice everything is shrinking. My arms were 11.5 in (yeah Im skinny, working on gaining :P) but they are now 11.0 in. I've lost about 3 lbs as well.

If I go back to working out, how long will it take me to recover from this disappointing loss? I still need 20 more lbs to gain, and want the perfect body by next summer, so I hope I haven't ruined my goal!

Answer 1

that really depends on your diet. if you have been training heavy for months a good 2 weeks break can allow the CNS to almost fully recover allowing a trainer to possible break a training plateau. you won't lose any muscle mass, it takes usually 3 weeks before cardio vascular performance would see a marked decrease.

personally I routinely take 1-2 week breaks from training. I believe this is one of many reasons that I have never really hit a training plateau after all these years

Answer 2

You must take a week off every 8-10 weeks from the gym to give your body time to properly heal and recover. Every once in a while I will take 2 full weeks off if I am having problems with a certain area of my body not fully healing (shoulders always give me problems).

For the most part you should see a gain in strength in muscle mass after your week off because muscle builds when you are resting, not working out. I have came back to the gym after 2 weeks and everything dropped but after getting back into it for 2 more weeks I went up on all my lifts.

Answer 3

No bro. You'll be fine. I got lazy once and didn't workout for about a week 1/2 then right when I got back on track BAM!! back to the way I was ha ha. ;) good luck bro

Answer 4

You have not ruined your goal, just get back to it the longer you wait the longer it will take to get back to where you were.