If you’ve made any type of progress building muscle, it’s tough to deal with the concept of not training.

Right now, more than ever, we’re faced with this challenge. COVID-19 has forced most of us indoors. It has eliminated your ability to go to the gym and train with equipment you’re accustomed to. In turn, it’s left you searching for answers and worrying about how to hold on to the progress you’ve made.

It’s common to worry that a situation like this will result in you losing your gains and momentum, and all of your hard work will be undone.

The good news? That’s not necessarily the truth.

While most of us are at home, dealing with social distancing and self quarantine, it’s a difficult time for pursuing fitness goals, making progress, and staying optimistic and driven to work hard.

In this article, we’re going to dive into research evidence that shows how your current situation isn’t a deal breaker in regards to building muscle, and it shouldn’t be something that makes you unmotivated to train and keep pushing for progress.

Rather, it should motivate you to make the most out of a challenging situation.

Research Evidence

Let’s start by looking at a 2013 study that compared two groups of people with different training schedules.

The first group trained continuously for six weeks while the second group operated with the following undulating training schedule for 24 total weeks:

Weeks:	Training Status:
1-6	Training
7-9	Not Training
10-15	Training
16-18	Not Training
19-24	Training

Based on measurements of muscle cross-sectional area, the first and second groups had nearly the same amount of muscle gains over 24 weeks. These results are a big win for anyone who needs to, or is forced to take an extended period of time off from training.

The group that trained intermittently (repeating 6 weeks on and 3 weeks off) saw increases in muscle size during the 6-week training blocks, and then decreases in muscle size during the 3-week non-training blocks. However, those decreases were quickly reversed once training began again.

You may have heard the term “muscle memory” before. Some shrug it off as “bro science” or myth, but research has shown that muscle memory is in fact a physiological mechanism that we can rely on when it comes to building or maintaining muscle mass.

So yes, if you can’t train you’ll likely lose some muscle mass, but it can be quickly rebuilt once you start training again. In other words, stop worrying!

Now, if we want to avoid as much muscle loss as much as possible, we can look to the results of a 2016 study that focused on low-load, or no-load training. This is specifically of interest to you if you only have your body weight or light resistance to work with, such as resistance bands.

This study focuses on another idea that is probably deemed bro science, which is the concept of “if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it.” This study found that stimulating as many muscle fibers as possible can lead to growth, regardless of external load (weight lifted).

Researchers “observed muscle growth across a range of external loads and muscle actions and suggest that muscle growth can occur independent of an external load provided there are enough muscle fibers” being stimulated.

So if you can get creative and find ways to keep working your muscles, you’re likely to hold on to a lot of the progress you’ve made.

Coaching Cues

For starters, let’s clarify what we’re talking about here: building and maintaining muscle mass. That’s the focus of this article and associated research. It’s especially relevant right now, as we try to make the best of a challenging situation with COVID-19.

In order to build muscle with limited resources, or maintain what you’ve built, it’s probably best to first set realistic goals and expectations.

Are you going to be able to maximize your gains? Probably not. Training from home with minimal equipment is not optimal. BUT, you can still build some muscle.

Is all of your progress going to be lost? Again, probably not. It’s up to you to stay determined and committed to your goals.

A realistic expectation, or goal, to set for yourself would be to try and maximize your gains based on the current circumstances. So right now, it would be to build or maintain as much muscle as possible. Don’t expect that you’ll continue to build muscle at the same rate as when you were able to train at the gym without restriction.

Get creative and find ways to lift weight at home. You don’t need dumbbells, barbells, or any fancy equipment. Weight is weight, regardless of how it looks or functions. Find ways to load your muscles and move.

There’s a plethora of ways to get in good workouts with body weight, low weight, or resistance bands. My article on home workout tips can help get you started. And be sure to check back here mid week for a brand new set of home workout resources based around working out with your backpack!

What’s most important is that you exercise each muscle group consistently, and push yourself close to failure. When you’re using low weight or body weight, you’re going to have to do more overall volume per muscle group to maintain, or grow. That can mean a TON of push ups or air squats, but the point here is it’s possible, and you can do it.

Check out my article on 5 Tips For Exercising While Working at Home for much more on how to set expectations and make the most of training at home.

Reasonable expectations are important because they’ll help keep you from getting discouraged, while also help you to appreciate the progress you DO make.

Additionally, as your coach I’d recommend you monitor your diet and make sure you’re in a slight calorie surplus with adequate protein. I’ve written tons of articles on nutritional recommendations for training, which you can browse on my website.

A silver lining to being trapped at home right now, is that you’ve never had more control over your diet — or, at least you’ve never had a greater ability to be in control.

Buy quality foods, cook them, and eat them in controlled portions. All of your resources are accessible to you in the kitchen.

And finally, I’ll encourage you to continue working hard. Like, legitimately hard.

Find ways that you can lift, and hammer away at it. It’s going to take some extra time and effort to get quality training in at home. Treat this as a challenge to yourself to keep the intensity up.

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I hope you found this article helpful! If you’re interested in coaching that guides you through how to put together a custom at-home program for building muscle, or any other fitness goal, check out my coaching page. My monthly coaching service is specifically one that could really help you right now, and it’s extremely affordable!

If you’d like to talk more about coaching, contact me and we can continue this discussion!

Thanks for reading!