How to Keep Muscle Mass When You Are Away From Training

Sometimes people are faced with the inability to go to the gym and do their training for longer periods of time (exam session, a business trip, prolonged vacation or illness, etc.). Skipping the workout for a week or two will actually be useful for your muscles and central nervous system. They will have the time to make a full recovery. If you are unable to workout for a month or two, the situation looks less promising. The muscles that hypertrophied during regular workouts,  will be reduced due to the lack of stimulation.

The body doesn’t need the “service” of big muscles anymore. And the larger you are, the chances are that you’ll lose more of your precious muscle mass. In addition, the harder it is to grow muscles – the easier (faster) they are reduced by the impact of the factors contributing to this (particularly prolonged lack of strength training).

So how do you keep the hard earned muscle?

One way to solve this problem (or partially solve it) could be the intake of vitamin E. US scientists as a result of research found that vitamin E helps strengthen muscle cell membranes and prevents substances that atrophy muscle cells to enter the cell itself. It was also found that vitamin E supports phospholipids, which are some of the major components of the membrane itself.

Vitamin E is needed not only in the absence of training, but also during intense training periods. Thus, the deficiency of vitamin E  decreased the amount of myosin, glycogen, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus and creatine in muscle. In such circumstances, the athlete experiences a hypotonia (a state of low muscle tone – the amount of tension or resistance to stretch in a muscle, often involving reduced muscle strength.) and weakness in the muscles.

To avoid losing muscle during the absence of training, a daily vitamin E  dose of 50-100 mg should be consumed. This recommendation is relevant not only in cases of prolonged absence of exercise, but also in cases of scheduled rest periods.


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