How To Maintain Muscle When You're Injured & Not Working Out. Being injured sucks. Even if you can still get in the gym and continue training around the injury, it still sucks. Working out at anything less than 1. Do you know what’s even worse? When the injury is something that forces you to stop working out completely. ![]() ![]() ![]() Written by Shane Duquette on March 16, 2015. Gain Muscle Mass: Top 7 Mistakes Most People Make. Tweet; This post came about as a result of people asking me almost on a daily basis how to calculate their macros for a successful diet or cut. I found myself either. The Rapid Fat Loss Handbook A Scientific Approach to Crash Dieting. Package Includes: The Rapid Fat Loss Handbook: 93 pages Home Exercise Handbook (PDF). The most important part of your diet is your calorie intake. The question is, which calculator is the best and most accurate for calculating your BMR/TDEE? How To Gain Lean Bodyweight. Click Here for "How To Gain Lean Bodyweight, Part 2:" (meal ratios, meal frequency & food choices) Click Here for "How to gain lean. ![]() No training around it. Just sit at home and wait for everything to heal. Now that really sucks. And while not being able to do what you enjoy doing (assuming you actually enjoy working out) sucks, and not being able to push yourself to make more progress also sucks, the thing that may very well suck the most is knowing that you’re going to slowly begin losing the progress you’ve already made. ![]() I’m talking about the muscle mass and strength you’ve worked your ass off for months/years to gain. And now an injury is forcing you to sit around and watch it disappear. I hate to use the word “sucks” again, but that sucks as much as suck is possible of sucking. What Can You Do To Prevent It? Anyone who has been in that shitty position before knows this all too well, and anyone who hasn’t can surely imagine.? Is there some way to maintain some (or all?) of your muscle and strength while you recover from your injury? Well, in all honesty, that depends on the specifics of your injury and the time frame for it to heal. The more serious the injury and/or the longer it’s going to take to get better, the less likely you’re going to be to maintain ALL of your muscle and strength. It’s just unavoidable. That’s the bad news. There is however some good news. When cutting it is crucial to not only count the calories you consume, but to make sure you are getting quality nutrients from those calories. What are the 20 best. Glad you went directly to the diet aspect of what one can do during injury periods. Also, wonder why that other crucial factor of Purpose The primary purpose of a hemorrhoidectomy is to relieve the symptoms associated with hemorrhoids that have not responded to more conservative. Or "Top Ten Diet Myths Debunked". That would have fit almost as well. Ok, so in retrospect, I think I screwed up on the title. Many myths just happened to be. Regardless of the extent of your injury and how long it prevents you from working out, there are most definitely some things you can (and should) do to put yourself in the best position for maintaining as much muscle and strength as you possibly can. Here now are my 7 recommendations. For example: vacations, trips, traveling, illness, etc.)1. Set Calories At Maintenance (Or Maybe A Surplus)There are 3 things you can do with your calorie intake during this time (or really any time). You can either be in a: Caloric Deficit (the cause of weight loss). Caloric Surplus (the cause of weight gain). ![]() Maintenance Level (the cause of. Some of the time, a surplus is the way to go. None of the time, a deficit. Here’s when and why to use or avoid each. When To Use A Caloric Surplus. If you were already in a surplus when the injury occurred AND it will only keep you out of the gym for 1- 2 weeks, I’d probably keep a tiny surplus present just like I would if someone was going to spend 1- 2 weeks deloading or taking a scheduled 1- 2 week break from training. Why? First, because it may improve your ability to maintain muscle during this time AND recover from your injury (more about that in a minute). Second, since the time frame for being away from the gym is so short, it’s practically the. And during a scheduled training break I’d typically recommend keeping a small surplus present (assuming it was present before the break) to best allow for recovery and super- compensation to occur. Might as well get those same benefits now, don’t you think? When To Use Your Maintenance Level. But what if you weren’t in a surplus at the time of the injury? For example, maybe you were in a deficit for the purpose of losing fat. Look at every fat person on the planet. They gained that fat because they consistently ate more calories than their bodies burned (a surplus) and didn’t provide the training stimulus that would have signaled their body to use at least some of those calories for creating new muscle tissue. So, long story short, all of those surplus calories just went directly to fat storage. And in a case where an injury is going to prevent you from working out for weeks and weeks (or months and months), that’s exactly what would happen to you. Which means, in order to not only put your body in the best possible position for maintaining muscle and strength but ALSO prevent yourself from gaining any fat during this time, maintenance level is often the best way to go. When To Use A Caloric Deficit. Honestly? Never. I guess I shouldn’t say never, because I’m sure there are some rarer cases where a deficit might have its place during a scenario like this (e. But, for most of the people most of the time? Well, let’s start with the maintaining muscle and strength part. As I’ve written about before, the key requirement for maintaining muscle while losing fat (and therefore being in a deficit) is to maintain the heavy strength training. More about that here. And hey, what a coincidence. This is why certain adjustments should usually be made to your workout to compensate. Not to mention, this is why the primary training goal while in a deficit is to maintain muscle/strength rather than increase it. A deficit just isn’t the ideal? Do you think a deficit is where you want to be when you’re trying to heal and recover from an injury as fast as you possibly can? Probably not. If I had to guess, I’d say your body will be better/faster/stronger at getting healthier when sufficient. Keep Your Protein Intake High. The single biggest dietary factor for maintaining muscle while losing fat is eating a sufficient amount of protein each day. Every study I’ve ever seen looking at different weight loss diets and the composition of weight that was lost (was it fat or muscle?) confirms it. Protein is THE dietary difference maker between losing muscle and maintaining muscle. So even though this has little to do with weight loss or fat loss, it still has everything to do with trying to avoid losing muscle while injured. Which means, even in the temporary. Safely And Cautiously Do What Little Training You Can. Let’s say the part of the body you’ve injured is on your upper body. Is there any lower body training you can safely do? If so (and your doctor agrees), then do it! The same goes for if the injured body part is on your lower body. Is there any upper body stuff you can safely do? And you’re not just limited to upper vs lower. Maybe your elbow is totally screwed. You might still be able to do exercises that don’t require any flexion or extension without any problem. Can you do rows pain- free and without making things worse? Can you leg curl and leg extension? It’s possible. I’m not your doctor (or even A doctor), and I don’t know the extent of your injury. But what I do know is that during the handful of minor to slightly- less- minor injuries I’ve personally dealt with, there’s often something – no matter how small and seemingly insignificant – that I was still capable of doing without negatively effecting the injury. And when you’re looking to maintain as much muscle and strength as possible, every little bit helps as long its not making anything worse. STOP Trying To Train Through It You Idiot!!! You see, I’m just like you. If an injury is going to keep me from working out, it’s going to drive me insane, mainly with the fear of the muscle and progress I’m going to end up losing. When I was dumb enough early on, this fear would completely overtake all sense of intelligent and logical decision making I was capable of to the point where I’d just keep trying to train through the injury so I’d avoid missing any workouts and losing any muscle/strength. And then, you know, I’d just kinda hope. Maybe things will magically get better? You know what ends up happening 9. You make the injury worse, and something that would have only kept you out of the gym for a couple of weeks will now keep you out of the gym for a couple of months. Or worse. Which means, if you want to avoid losing the progress you’ve made, you’re going to want to suck it up now and get 1. F- ing possible. That means doing whatever is needed in the present to avoid screwing yourself in the future by adopting the “ignore the problem and hope for the best” mentality which just makes things worse and prolongs the entire situation. STOP Trying To Come Back Too Soon You Idiot!!! Ah yes, the equally ugly sister to #4. You are smart enough to stop training so your injury can heal, but then you start to get a little antsy as more time passes and you’re still not back in the gym. You look in the mirror and see results beginning to fade and muscle beginning to. You feel weaker, fatter and less muscular each passing day. Often however, it’s largely in your head and your mind is messing with you.)So, what do you do? You go back to the gym too soon because you just can’t take it anymore. And what happens? You tweak the still- not- fully- healed injury you’ve been recovering from, and set yourself back days/weeks/months. Or, even better, to a point worse than where you initially started at. So rather than just waiting the extra little bit of time it would have taken to fully heal 1. Like I’ve heard Lyle Mc. Donald say before. Keep Doing Everything Else Right. Keep getting plenty of sleep (details here: How To Sleep Better). Keep drinking plenty of water. Keep your intake of essential fatty acids at sufficient levels (e. Keep your diet higher in quality foods and lower in garbage that makes you feel like crap. Blah blah blah. Basically, everything you would be doing to put yourself in the optimal position for improving your body should still be happening just the same. No matter how big or small, it all plays some. Whether it will help you maintain muscle longer, help your injury heal faster, make returning to lifting a little easier or just keep you feeling sane during a time where it’s easy to go insane, do it. Speaking of sanity. Remember: Muscle Memory IS Real. No matter how long it takes, or how bad it gets, or how much it sucks. In fact, maybe you should keep it in the front of your mind. And that is, muscle memory is real and legit. I’ve known this for quite a while, but it was mainly based on things I’ve seen and heard rather than experienced. It wasn’t until I was forced to miss a truly significant amount of time — 3 months due to injury — that I was able to see it happen first- hand. And let me tell ya, it’s real. It’s always gonna suck.
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