How long does it take to lose muscle if you skip gym training for vacation?

When we go on vacation, it's normal to skip the gym during this rest period and take a break from our strength training routines. But at what cost?

The trade publication Men's Health published an article answering the question of how long it takes for us to lose our weight while on vacation.

This outlet features the opinion of sports science educator David Marchante , a graduate in Physical Activity and Sports Sciences and a strength training specialist. "During periods of detraining, we lose muscle size rapidly, much more than strength," says Marchante.

This expert explains that "when we stop intense strength training, but continue to move somewhat, we stop recruiting our high-threshold motor units , unless we have a very physical occupation."

"However, we continued to recruit low- and mid-threshold motor units as a result of our daily living activities. As a result, we noticed a significant (but not dramatic) reduction in overall muscle size," he adds.

"Conversely, if we stop all physical activity and take complete rest for a period of time (for example, on vacation), we stop recruiting more than just high-threshold motor units. Consequently, we experience a loss in the size of all muscle fibers ," says Marchante.

And how can we avoid this? Marchante suggests that during vacations we do "at least 20% of what we were doing previously (one out of every five sets). With strength training, it's not as dramatic, and you can maintain a lot of what you've achieved for long periods of time with almost no training," he says.

The expert maintains that building muscle mass and gaining strength is "quite costly in terms of effort and time, but maintaining them is much easier than you think."

As for strength, Marchante says that what is achieved through regular training can be maintained for up to 32 weeks. "Furthermore, drastically reducing volume can result in even greater strength gains," he adds.

However, he warns that in the case of hypertrophy, things change: "In eight weeks, you're back to where you started." "Total volume is crucial," he explains.