Let me just clear up a couple of misconceptions.
You are not going to lose an appreciable amount of strength or muscle in 1-3 (or even more!) weeks. The NSCA book I'm studying states that de-conditioning in strength athletes only begins after at least 3 weeks of no activity.
This week, I started easing back into serious workouts and decided to test my strength. A few months ago I did 25 push-ups in one minute. I tried this fitness test again, and here are my results:
That's 24 in 1:08 - but I'm tucking my elbows much more, which makes push-ups more difficult because it puts more stress on the triceps and shoulders, which are generally weaker than the chest.
As far as muscle? I haven't done jack for my legs in almost 4 weeks, and this is how they're lookin':
I love slipper socks :D
I know one of the things I was most worried about right after my injury was the possibility that I would lose all motivation for the gym. That obviously didn't happen. I used what would have been gym time to read everything I could find about lifting, recovery, and injury prevention. I'd like to think that will help me down the road.
So to conclude: Take time off if your body needs it. Don't freak out about it. The gym - and your strength, determination, and motivation - will be there when you're ready to go back.
This post was just what I needed to read today friend. I'm currently in the middle of a week off of any working out and it's been tough mentally, so your optimism/your story offers the best comfort. :) Thank you!!
ReplyDeleteJust wait til you see how much your workouts will improve after you REALLY give your muscles some time to fully recover! =D
DeleteI love slipper socks too - have half a drawer dedicated to them ;-) How is your piriformis by the way?
ReplyDeleteSlipper socks are the best thing about hospital stays ;-) haha
DeleteIt's good! The numbness/parasthesia is retreating 'down' my foot :D I've been doing mobility exercises, stretching, and doing yoga :)
This is really, really helpful cause I've been feeling down about my spotty workouts recently. It's easy to slip into that "all or nothing" mindset and think if we're not going hard all the time it's not good enough which is just wrong. I think more than anything just knowing this will give me the confidence boost I've been missing. It's mostly mental, right? : )
ReplyDeleteIt's ALL mental I think!! =)
DeleteThis is so true. I read an article once that said that your cardio endurance would suffer more then your strength endurance would. For instance, if you went on vacation and had to choose between cardio or weights, they reccommended cardio. And sometimes you need the mental break of not going to the gym everyday.
ReplyDeleteYep!!!! I should probably disclose that my cardio endurance is pretty awful at this point O_O but I'm hopeful that it will come back pretty quickly. I know you can start to see changes in terms of endurance within a couple of weeks.
DeleteI think you stay motivated because of your generally positive outlook. When you do get back to normal if you lost anything, you have the amazing benefit of muscle memory.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea I am going to steal for the pushups!
Go gettum!
I'm not always as positive as I seem! :-X I was pretty down when my coach emailed me mandating some time off.
DeleteLove this advice! I think the hardest part about taking time off is comparing yourself to someone others who will still be at the gym.
ReplyDeleteFortunately, most of my issues stem from my mental breaks telling me "oh skip the gym today - you walked a lot" :)
Ugh yep - especially when you're on Twitter/Facebook and everyone's bragging about their workouts and how hardcore they are. haha! I hate social media sometimes.
DeleteSuch a good read for me today as I was feeling slightly bad about a week of spotty workouts and missing today entirely (i think my gym is closed). You are right though, missing some workouts isn't a huge deal!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely not! More time off means more time to recover and grow! =D
Deleteawesome girlfriend! i'm so happy that you're coming out of this injury strong - emotionally and physically!
ReplyDeletei know that when i went through my hip issues, i was afraid i'd get lazy and not want to run anymore. however, just like you, i came back raring to go! good for you!
It was such a huge worry for me!! I should've known better :)
DeleteLove this, it's a great reminder that we all need sometimes!!! I have a hard time forcing myself to take time when it's not a "scheduled" de-load week... Even this week, I've been sick with a respiratory something-or-other and decided to sleep in today instead of go to the gym to let my body recovered. Guess who was having guilty feelings creep in all day? THIS girl! Argh. Great post.
ReplyDeleteWe are ALL susceptible to this!!! I had the sinus infection from hell last year - I literally felt like I was just going to keel over and die. I could barely breathe! Anyway I wound up skipping two whole workouts and I beat myself up for it. DUH. Ugh.
DeleteThis is such an awesome post because it's so true! Take solid rest weeks-months can do so much more for your body then people ever think! Great and inspirational post girl!
ReplyDeleteThanks Hollie!!!!! =) <3
DeleteGreat post. I've taken time off here and there, and my strength has never reduced dramatically. In fact, the only time I see a decrease in my strength is when I eat like crap! When we took a week off from the gym around our move, our diets slipped, and all the weights I normally use felt like they weighed a tonne. But other times I've taken a deload for a week or two and kept my diet on track, I've only seen positive results.
ReplyDeleteAs for cardio, on the other hand, yikes. My endurance has gone waaaaay down. I used to be able to run 10k every day without breaking a real sweat, but now after 5 minutes I'm counting down the minutes I have left! It's funny how your body reacts differently to weights versus cardio.
I think you're onto something here!! If I don't eat foods that give me energy my workouts suffer BIG time. It's not unusual for me to lose 15+ lbs on all my major lifts if I've been eating like crap for any period of time.
DeleteGreat post! I love that you used your gym time to read up on gym related things that will totally help you down the road!
ReplyDeleteThanks! =D I think it was a good use of time ;-)
DeleteReading this is a huge relief to me. Skipping workouts has always been a major source of guilt for me, not to mention confusion, since I've never really understood exactly how much "damage" I'm doing. Thanks for yet another informative post!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad it helped you!! I used to get super anxious about missed workouts too =)
DeleteI needed to hear this right now! :)
ReplyDeleteGlad it was timely! =D
DeleteDo I ever feel you here.... slipper socks rock! hahaha
ReplyDeletebut seriously, I was so nervous about taking even three days off during prep... btu I did... and was fine. Hell, I even was given saturday off cardio and took a rest day sunday. I feel mentally and physically better resting MORE this prep than ever before.
The more I rest (well, within reason! =)) the better I feel!!
Delete