Hello, just found this forum - hoping to find much advice.

Anyway, I've been working out solid since October of last year. Been doing 4 days a week and all muscle groups. I went from 160lbs to 190 where I am today. I made huge gains in back, shoulders and chest, not so much in my arms though. My stomach is the worst, with no abs only fat. But overall I was kinda happy with the way things were progressing and it made me a lot more confident.

3 weeks ago I had to go abroad on business and only got to train a couple of times. Today it seems that all the gains I made have just gone. My arms feel soft and small, my chest feels soft too and my belly is just that, a belly.

I'm hitting the gym tonight for the first time in 3 weeks but was wondering if someone can enlighten me as to how long it will take to quickly regain my strength and start seeing gains again and has the rest actually done me any good? Maybe I reached my plateu before the break.

Also, if someone can recommend a good weights/cardio ratio to start with and also a decent arms routine or any tips to getting better gains on my bis and tris.

Sorry for the long message.

thanks!

If it was only three weeks, chances are you didnt loose too much muscle, if any at all. Thats pretty much the point where you START loosing it.
To me it sounds like you need to make a decision; cut down, or bulk up. Its very hard to loose fat and gain muscle at the same time, unless you are very overweight.

johnd

Yes, the rest has probably done you some good. When you workout, you get very small tears in the muscle fibers over time that take more than the few days between workouts to heal. Every so often it is good to take a week or two fully off to let them heal up.

When you come back from being off as you just did, it is normal to be a bit weaker as your muscles aren't used to working. I have found it usually only takes me a couple weeks to get back into things fully.

I find it hard to believe that you could have lost all your gains in only 3 weeks. Many people rest for a whole week every once in a while and it's my experience that if anything I'm stronger when I return.

Sometimes, it's like a mental thing, you know what I mean. Sometimes when I have to skip going to the gym for some reason, I immediately feel like I'm getting weaker, just because I missed out 1 day. That of course is not the case.

Maybe 3 weeks is actually enough to actually start loosing muscle/strength, but I'm sure that varies from person to person.

Just go to the gym, and exercise like never before. If it's true, that you have lost some strength, you will quickly regain it, I'm sure. There is chance that this rest did you more good than bad.

Not overweight, but not cut either. I defentely want to bulk. My plan was always to get BIG and cut later.

My arms seem to have sufferend the most and that is where I need to put in the extra effort.

jj23,

This morning I justed finished my 2nd week back from being off or (1) week....I had been lifting for (15) weeks/3 days a week. My strength was off a little, not much the first week, but during the 2nd week I'm back in the saddle.

I agree with the other comments....your body does need a rest. So don't worry about the loss, you should recover within a week or two!

As far as the weights/cardio, try walking or jogging on the treadmill 3x week 15-20 minutes. I'm in the same position as you....I don't want to loss much muscle but at the same time I'd like to do cardio to reduce fat.
I normally rotate incline treadmill with low-intensity jogging. Therefore not losing much muscle!

*Don't forget the diet!

I'm kinda on the same boat as you are. I've been working out alot for the past 6 months then i had a balance problem and couldn't lift for on a schedual for 4 weeks. 2 weeks i could hardly walk.

What i did was the first workout back i lifted as hard as i could, added like 3 extra sets of weights and just pushed myself to the max. I threw up a little, but then i gave myself like 4 days to rebuild.

It shouldn't take you too long. I'm almost back to where i was and its only been 2 weeks sense i started lifting again.

sometimes time off is good for motivation.