What happens when you stop bodybuilding, do not eat a proper diet and quit working out?
We have all been there! Work demand. Family. Weather. I must admit, sometimes life just gets in the way, and I lose our foothold. I fall out of training. You may see this called “Detraining”, which basically means the loss of what you had due to a loss of stimulus through a lack of training that you have been used to.
That for me is a given. I know that if I quit working out I am not going to be able to maintain the muscle mass that I have accumulated. Typically, what else goes hand in hand with Detraining? Poor Diet! Damn Skippy it does. First, we miss a couple days at the gym, and this turns into a week or two weeks and the diet goes all to hell.
So initially, the thing everyone is going to focus on is the muscle atrophy. “Damn Bro! You gettin Small!” You will lose strength as you lose size. Some of the guys on these forum, like me, are 50+ and one of the first sings that we are going to see is that overhead lifts will become more difficult., our grip will weaken, we will have more muscle twitches, cramping and even balance can become unstable. That’s bad enough, but the issue is so much bigger than that. As we quit working out, we get lazy and that will be reflected in our diet. We will trade in years of counting macros for a for the quick and easy way out. It sucks but it’s true, and this poor diet is the greatest threat to you as you quit working out.
So what else can we expect?
You can expect everything that comes with a poor diet especially as we age. Cholesterol is a big issue in the US. The CDC indicates that 94 million adults ages 20 and older have a cholesterol level >200 and an estimated 28 million are at >240. That will become a problem. High Cholesterol is bad enough, but if you are not watching your labs, and have been running AAS or even TRT for years, chances are you have a high red blood cells count and a high level of hematocrit. That’s where the trouble will come in. This is going to put you at a greater risk of strokes and heart attacks. When the guys on this forum or any other for that matter talk about labs, its because we know the importance of them, and that’s when we are on a proper diet.
So, what else? Well we all know that we will lose muscle mass. What else have you noticed since taking up the lifestyle? Are your veins more pronounced? Yes, they are, partly due to the fact that they have had to accommodate the increase in red blood cells. But what come with that? Capillaries will begin to decrease as will their density. Tighter spaces mean greater risk again for heart attacks and strokes.
What about the heart? The brain? What changes will we have there. Well, lifting and cardio increase the heart rate and therefore blood flow. To maintain that flow, the heart will increase it’s stroke volume. That means that more blood will get to where we need it most. Have you ever noticed that when you get back form a run, or have great lifting day in the gym, your thoughts a clearer. That’s due to the increased stroke volume and blood flow. When we quit working out that blood flow and stroke volume are going to decrease just like the muscle mass. Thoughts will get cloudy and for us older guys, we will have more of these “Senior Moments”.
Sleep is always better for me when my workout and cardio routine are consistent. As we decrease our activity levels that good sleep we are used to will begin to diminish. Remember, sleep, deep sleep, is when the body really produces the GH and test. So, add insult to injury, now what your body would have made naturally, well you have gone and fucked that up as well.
The way I have if figured, is that I am in this for the duration. I will likely be on TRT the rest of my life and for me a proper diet will go right along with it. My gym is in my basement, that is my happy place so I cannot fathom the loss of my workouts. They seem to be what keeps me sane. I love the high protein, moderate fat/carb diet. I am not big on fast foods, soda or even eating out at restaurants for that matter. I mean don’t get me wrong, there are times I out of state for work and I eat out and I don’t see anything wrong with that. But if the lifestyle is left behind, we must be very mindful of where we are, where we are going and how we plan on getting there.
