Help... No gym for a month! Are my muscles gonna die?!

The0neWhoKnocks

Hey guys!

I'm asking in advance for this but I'm going to my home town for about 4 weeks over the Christmas period (my gym is where I study). I will do my best to avoid snacking / junk foods and take protein shakes couple times a day, but I'm worried about losing muscle mass, I don't even mind if my weight loss slows right down. I've worked hard over the past 2-3 months to get somewhere where I've improved my lifting.

Can I get away with body weight exercises for a few weeks, any programmes you recommend or anything else I can do which I haven't mentioned? Oh I'm gonna go for runs too every few days, I'm working on my stamina.

Thanks guys, I really appreciate any advice.
T0wk

caracrawford1

When I go visit my mother, my gym has branches that you can visit on a "travel pass" (golds). You can also get visitors passes up to two weeks long at several gyms. Of course they'll try and sell to you, but that's the point of those. 24hour fitness has a two week pass you can sign up for and activate online for example, lafitness also has a 2 week pass. If you can't do that for whatever reason, you can get some exercise in by at least walking. Golds is running a month long freebie, but you can also get a 7day VIP pass. I mean, there's really no excuse. There's always a way to do something.

Megabot

I'm terrible at working out when I'm away. But if you're determined, I'm sure you can do a fair amount of bodyweight excercises that will at least keep you from rolling too far backwards. Push-ups and Pull-ups are easily done just about anywhere, I used to do pull-ups using my fingers on the edges of door frames. You can run to stay lean, and you could do squats/lunges while holding something to keep your large leg muscles in shape. If you have anything that's a dense 10-20 pounds, you can do serious ab exercises too.

Liftng4Lis

Buy a couple of barbells and improvise.

FatFreeFrolicking

Buy resistance bands.

MamaP47

As long as you are doing some running and resistance training, you should not lose too much muscle mass (at least I don't think you will). You can buy some resistance bands (they sell them everywhere to include Walmart). The bands are good because they are small, light weight, and you can pretty much through them in your back pack. Good ole traditional exercises like the push-up, pull-ups, and sit-ups will help. You can even do some burpees (my soldiers hate it when I make them do them, lol).

If you are with family and friends and they have a gym membership, try to see if you can tag along with them as their gym "guests".

mustgetmuscles1

Body weight workout should be fine. If you are not in a deficit I doubt you would lose much if any LBM. So you could just try to maintain for that time.

You could also do these when ever you want.
http://www.nsca.com/Education/Articles/The-Often-Forgotten-Exercises-Isometric-Training/

970Mikaela1

Go to gym in hometown.

RickDube64

You should not lose any muscle mass in just 4 weeks. Remember, that muscles do not grow when you lift, they grow when they heal. You will probably be doing yourself some good in letting your muscles and joints rest. Just keep up with your protein, and don't overdo the carbs. You don't want to put fat over your muscle. You may find that after 4 weeks you can't lift as heavy, but you should quickly recover, and since you are surprising your muscles, they may grow even faster.

MKEgal

Keep within your calorie goal & you'll at least maintain weight, possibly lose.
And if you can't exercise at all, yes, you'll be slightly deconditioned but it shouldn't be much.

For a body weight workout, try this:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/09/the-scientific-7-minute-workout/
Repeat the cycle for up to 20 min for best benefit.

It links to an article by the American College of Sports Medicine, backing up the claims made.
The article includes citations to studies from which they draw their conclusions.

Unknown

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Kalikel

It is unlikely that you'll lose much (if any) muscle if you eat enough overall, have an adequate amount of protein, run and do your bodyweight stuff.

Enjoy your visit and don't worry.

The0neWhoKnocks

I love y'all! this is really helpful advice and what I need to hear, thank you (*)