Muscle Remembers: Why Gains Come Back Easy After Time Off

By /

If you take time away from lifting, what will happen to your gains?  And when you get back to training, how long will it take to get your muscle back?

Researchers at Keele University looked into these questions.

Hypothesis

Skeletal muscle ‘remembers’ periods of muscle growth, making it easier to gain back muscle after taking time off from the gym.

This occurs through epigentic modifications – DNA has ‘markers’ or ‘tags’ that tell genes to be active or inactive.

During a period of muscle growth, these ‘tags’ or methyl groups are removed, allowing gene expression to increase.  If lifting is stopped then restarted again, this ‘hypomethylated state’ becomes increased, making resistance training more effective at getting gains back.

Methods

8 untrained healthy males were used for this study.

They trained for 7 weeks, 3 days/week (loading)

followed by

7 weeks, no lifting (unloading)

followed by

Again, training for 7 weeks, 3 days/week (re-loading)

  • Lifting was 4 sets of 8-10 repetitions, Monday and Friday for lower body, Wednesday for upper body.
  • Total volume in kgs was progressively increased (re-loading saw significant increase in average load).
  • A trainer was present at all lifting sessions for monitoring, encouraging, and ensuring sufficient progression.
  • DEXA and muscle biopsies were done (on quadriceps).

Lower body: behind head squat, leg press, leg extension, leg curl, Nordic curls, weighted lunges, and calf raises.

Upper body: flat barbell bench press, shoulder press, latissimus pull down, dumbbell row, and triceps cable extension.

Results

Muscle mass

6.5% increase in lean mass after loading.

4.6% decrease in lean mass after unloading

12.4% increase in lean mass after reloading (5.9% more than after the earlier period of loading)

Muscle strength had a similar trend (measure as isometric peak torque).

As Dr. Adam Sharples and his PhD student Mr. Robert Seaborne explained:

“In this study, we’ve demonstrated the genes in muscle become more untagged with this epigenetic information when it grows following exercise in earlier life, importantly these genes remain untagged even when we lose muscle again, but this untagging helps ‘switch’ the gene on to a greater extent and is associated with greater muscle growth in response to exercise in later life — demonstrating an epigenetic memory of earlier life muscle growth!”

Summary

In untrained males, lifting produced muscle gains after 7 weeks.  These gains went back to baseline after 7 weeks off.  Lifting again for 7 weeks evoked the largest increase in lean mass (almost 100% greater than the initial 7 weeks of training).

The body ‘remembers’ past encounters with lifting and gains that are lost during time off are easier to put back on (and surpass previous levels as gene expression is further enhanced during reloading).

Takeaway

You don’t have to lift year-round to keep muscle.  Athletes can rotate from bodybuilding-style, strength training, and speed/power training, and time completely off.  The body will remember what happened in the past.  If you cut bodybuidling-style training and then re-introduced it, any gains that were lost will come back easier than before.

For this audience, athletes can perform Hypertrophy Cluster Protocol for a few weeks or months, take some time off, perform Vertical Jump Protocol for a few weeks, take some time off, and rotate until muscle mass is copious and explosive ability is absolutely sickening.  Why will explosive ability also increase?  Because time off causes an overshoot in fast twitch fibers.

Enjoy the gains!

REFERENCES

Seaborne, R. A., Strauss, J., Cocks, M., Shepherd, S., O’Brien, T. D., van Someren, K. A., Bell, P. G., Murgatroyd, C., Morton, J. P., Stewart, C. E., & Sharples, A. P. (2018). Human skeletal muscle possesses and epigentic memory of hypertrophy. Scientific Reports, 8(1). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-20287-3.

1,542 thoughts on “Muscle Remembers: Why Gains Come Back Easy After Time Off”

  1. 增大网吊炸天

    增大网：

    增大壮阳，丰乳缩阴，泡妞把妹，房中秘术！

    够硬，男人的把柄才能堵住女人的漏洞！

    什么不用干，不用拉下线，坐收二百万！

    网址： daxie.521982.CoM

    吊炸天！

  151. Jamie gwedem helps

    giáo dục chuyên biệt hoa anh đào long biên Mình đang tìm hiểu để gửi bé nhà mình tới đây học tập xem sao. Thấy môi trường ở khu vực Long Biên này có vẻ khá ổn và các cô cũng nhiệt tình hỗ trợ phụ huynh từ khâu tư vấn. Hy vọng là phương pháp giáo dục của trường sẽ thực sự giúp con phát triển tốt hơn và hòa nhập tự tin hơn trong thời gian tới. Nếu bạn nào đã từng cho con theo học ở đây rồi thì cho mình xin thêm chút kinh nghiệm với nhé. helps into

  154. F 168

    If you want to increase your knowledge just keep visiting this web page
    and be updated with the most up-to-date news posted here.

  183. Singam Lottery Result

    I liked the straightforward style of this article. Instead of immediately presenting specific details, the writer first establishes some background before continuing with the main discussion. Singam Lottery Result is mentioned naturally as part of the relevant information. The surrounding sections add useful context and make the discussion feel more complete. Overall, the guide is organized and fairly easy to understand.

  218. Cerita Horor Karawang

    An impressive share! I’ve just forwarded this onto a colleague who was conducting a
    little research on this. And he in fact bought me lunch simply because I stumbled upon it for
    him… lol. So allow me to reword this…. Thank YOU for the meal!!
    But yeah, thanx for spending some time to talk about this subject here on your internet site.

  291. Taylor thoinn away

    Trường học mầm non Mỗi lần đi ngang qua những ngôi trường mầm non, mình lại thấy lòng nhẹ nhàng và bình yên lạ thường khi nghe tiếng cười đùa trong trẻo của các bé vang lên. Nhìn các con tung tăng chạy nhảy dưới sân trường hay đang say sưa lắng nghe cô giáo kể chuyện, mình bỗng thấy nhớ về những kỷ niệm tuổi thơ hồn nhiên ngày xưa. Đó thực sự là những nơi ươm mầm cho biết bao ước mơ đầu đời, nơi mà mỗi đứa trẻ đều được bao bọc trong tình yêu thương và sự chăm sóc tận tình nhất của các cô. Hy vọng rằng tất cả các bé đều sẽ có những năm tháng đầu đời thật rực rỡ, vui vẻ và đầy ắp những trải nghiệm đáng nhớ dưới mái trường thân yêu này. away causes

  301. OMA55 APK

    Postingan yang menarik untuk disimak. Makasih sudah membagikan cerita
    ini.

    Kisahnya cukup menarik. Saya suka cara penyampaiannya.
    Ditunggu cerita berikutnya.

    Bagus sekali membaca kisah seperti ini. Ceritanya mudah diikuti.
    Terima kasih.

    Saya menikmati membaca tulisan ini. Cara penyampaiannya enak dibaca.
    Ditunggu tulisan berikutnya.

    Tulisan yang bagus. Alurnya membuat penasaran. Salam.

  399. aplikasi trading emas

    Thanks a bunch for sharing this with all people you really recognize what you’re speaking about!
    Bookmarked. Please additionally discuss with my web site =).
    We can have a hyperlink trade arrangement between us

  1165. Farmacevtika i aptechnii biznes_saKi

    И про то, как всё устроено изнутри. Говорит, что фармацевтика — это не просто торговля таблетками. Заведующий аптекой — и работа с поставщиками. Новости фармацевтического рынка — чтобы держаться на плаву. Вся информация доступна здесь: сырье для фармацевтического производства сырье для фармацевтического производства И про Крупнейшие фармацевтические компании мира для провизоров. А не пойти ли учиться на фармацевта.

  1166. Kapelnica ot pohmelya_sesn

    У знакомого с корпоратива было. И весь день наперекосяк. Капельница от похмелья в Мытищах — и уже через полчаса становится легче. Сначала уходит интоксикация. Снять похмелье капельницей — работает утром, днём и ночью. Вся информация доступна здесь: вывод из запоя платно мытищи https://kapelnica.kapelnicza-ot-pokhmelya-uzao-koa.ru Там и про капельницу от похмелья цена для жителей Мытищ. Не мучайтесь.

  1167. Cifrovoe zdravoohranenie_glSr

    Помню, лет пять назад в поликлинике был хаос. пришёл к назначенному времени. ЕМИАС — это не просто удобно. Электронный рецепт — и не теряешь бумажки. Советую глянуть источник: егисз разделы https://rentalz.ru Там и про ЕМИАС что это за система для врачей. И медицина не стоит на месте.

  1171. Cifrovoe zdravoohranenie_moEl

    И задумался. А теперь с планшетом. ЕГИСЗ — это не просто гаджеты. Искусственный интеллект в медицине — а пока что они просто подсказывают врачу. Можете ознакомиться по ссылке: единая государственная система в сфере здравоохранения егисз единая государственная система в сфере здравоохранения егисз Там и про Применение методов искусственного интеллекта в медицине для пациентов. И нам тоже надо успевать.

  1173. Farmacevtika i aptechnii biznes_igEt

    На днях зашёл в аптеку. а образ жизни. Аптечный бизнес — а кто-то открывает свою аптеку. Советская аптека франшиза — и лицензия, которую не так просто получить. Советую глянуть источник: аптека живика ассортимент аптека живика ассортимент И про Валидацию в фармацевтическом производстве для предпринимателей. Может, тоже попробовать.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top