After months, if not years of training, the current lockdown situation has probably got you worried and thinking that you are going to lose all your hard-earned fitness gains. And while losing some strength and muscle is all but inevitable, there are lots of things you can do to keep these losses to a minimum.
Use these tips to ensure that, when the lockdown is finally over, you come out of it looking and feeling almost as good as before.
Keep training
Just because you can’t go to the gym doesn’t mean you can’t train. There are plenty of ways to workout at home. Ultimately, your body cannot differentiate between doing bench presses with a bar setup or doing push-ups with a heavy backpack on. It just knows tension and work, so providing you push yourself, any source of overload will help preserve your muscle mass.
Remember – your body operates on the “use it or lose it” principle. That means if you don’t workout, your body is more likely to catabolize your muscles. After all, they aren’t being put to good use. But, if you stress your muscles regularly, your body has a compelling reason to preserve them.
Good home workout methods that you can use to maintain muscle mass include:
● Bodyweight training
● Resistance band training
● Suspension training
● Isometrics
● Odd object lifting
Forget about body part splits – they’re impractical given your current lack of equipment.
However, 2-3 full-body workouts per week using any or a combination of these methods will go a long way toward preventing muscle loss.
Maintain a healthy diet
Stress and boredom eating are common problems on lockdown. Food can help pass the time, and high-calorie comfort foods can, temporarily at least, cheer you up. However, you are what you eat, and if you’re filling up on junk, you are much more likely to gain fat and lose your muscle definition. In addition, junk food contains none of the nutrients your body needs to maintain your mass and strength.
Avoid turning to unhealthy food for solace or, if you do, limit your consumption, so you still have plenty of space left in your diet for natural foods – especially protein, starchy and fibrous carbs, and healthy fats. If you need to, find a guilt-free snack that’s high in protein.
Alcohol consumption is also on the increase during the lockdown. Beer, wine, and spirits may lift your mood or alleviate boredom, but they won’t do anything for your waistline. Enjoy the occasional alcoholic drink, but also try to have more alcohol-free days per week and limit your consumption to just 1-2 drinks per day.
Avoid stress
Nothing will deplete your gains like unbridled stress. Stress produces cortisol, and cortisol is a catabolic hormone that is a plague for muscle mass. The current COVID-19 is undeniably a stressful situation. Still, other than staying home and practicing social distancing, there isn’t much you can do about it.
Reduce your stress levels by accepting and doing your best to make the most of the current situation. Also, avoid things that you know will increase your stress levels – basically anything that leaves you angry, frustrated, or worried.
Take a proactive approach to reducing stress, such as:
Creating and maintaining structure during your day
Avoiding excess caffeine and sugar
Staying active
Meditation
Maintaining social contact (safely)
Planning for when lockdown ends
To be continued next week.
