If you've done the work of building muscle mass, you probably want to make sure that you don't lose it. Maintaining muscle tissue will help to ensure that your strength and metabolic rate, among other things, remain intact. Learning what makes muscles detrain, or get smaller, will allow you to make appropriate adjustments to your weight-training program. Consult your doctor before beginning any new exercise program, and discuss muscle loss and maintenance if you're concerned.
Lifting to Maintain Basic Strength
Dr. Guy Hornsby, exercise physiologist and director of the West Virginia University Human Performance Lab, offers the following advice about how much weight you should lift for basic strength maintenance: 80 to 90 percent of your one-repetition maximum --- 1RM, in weightlifting shorthand --- weight with three to five sets of four to six repetitions. Your 1RM is the maximum amount of weight you can lift one time with any given muscle group. Frequency of weightlifting is also important for muscle mass maintenance. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that novice weightlifters do resistance training for the entire body two to three times per week to maintain basic strength.
When Muscle Mass Is Lost
The loss of muscle mass due to infrequent or insufficient exercise is known as detraining. It is possible to lose muscle mass if you lift significantly less weight than it took to reach your current strength level. The amount of time it takes to detrain depends on several factors, including exercise intensity. A study published in the October 2005 issue of the "British Journal of Sports Medicine" suggested that higher-intensity strength exercises produced greater gains in muscular strength. Further, it took longer to lose muscle mass built from high-intensity exercises after weight training was totally stopped. If you completely stop lifting weights, you should expect to return to pre-training muscle size and strength after about four to six months.
Preventing Muscle Loss
If you're concerned about losing muscle mass as a result of reducing the amount of weight you lift, there is something you can do that may prevent this. While you may not wish to lift heavy weights at every workout, it may be helpful to do so intermittently. Vary your training sessions to include less frequent high-intensity strength-training sessions mixed with more frequent low- or moderate-intensity sessions. It is also helpful to avoid going long periods of time without doing any resistance training.
How to Rebuild Lost Muscle Mass
Even avid weightlifters have times when they stop lifting or don't lift very often. If this happens, start lifting again as soon as possible, beginning with higher-intensity sessions to get you back to former strength levels as soon as possible. Hornsby prescribes the following formula for lifting to increase muscle mass: 60 to 80 percent of your 1RM for three to five sets of eight to 15 repetitions.
References
- Diabetes Exercise and Sports Association: Strength Training and Diabetes; Guy Hornsby, Ph.D., Doug Burns; 2009
- "British Journal of Sports Medicine"; Strength Training and Detraining Effects on Muscular Strength; I. G. Fatourous, et al.; October 2005
- MedlinePlus; Muscle Atrophy; Feb. 6, 2010
- ExRx: Detraining Muscle Mass
- Journal of Exercise Physiology Online; Analysis of the ACSM Position Stand on Resistance Training; Ralph Carpinelli, et al.; June 2004
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