Travelling with work or on holiday - why not having gym access won’t hinder you!

These days it’s very rare that you’ll come across a nice hotel on your holidays that doesn’t have some form of gym. However, it might not be all it’s made out to be on the website!

Whether it’s a couple of spin bikes, a treadmill and some rust old weights that only go up to 12.5kg, I’m here to let you know, that all is not lost during your time away from your favourite gym… (obviously I’m talking about Holme Run Fitness)

It’s a very common question I get asked very regularly.

Here’s a few scenarios, any of them sound familiar?

‘ I’m away with work but the hotel gyms aren’t really cut out to help me make progress ‘

‘ I’m away with the family for ten days, there’s no gym and I’ve been working super hard to build muscle and look good before we go ‘

‘ I’ve been really putting the cardio work in at home but there’s only a cross trainer and some dumbbells at the hotel ‘

Well I’m here to give you some breakdowns of timelines in relation to loss of progress.

For ease of reading, we’re going to split into three categories.

Strength

Muscle mass

Cardiovascular fitness

So let’s start with overall strength

Minimal changes will occur within a 1-2 week period, however if you were to leave it 2 weeks, you’d have more noticeable strength losses and a return to gym should be facilitated in such a way that you’re not trying to replicate similar weights as before the break.

Not bad right? A nice week or two off in the sun, no need to be in the gym and you’ll not lose much progress, you’ll just have to be careful on your return. Perfect.

Muscle mass

With muscle mass, depending on previous training regimes, your exposure to resistance exercises and DIET (which is key to maintaining muscle mass) you’ll start to notice SIGNIFICANT losses within 2-3 weeks of disuse, so enjoy that holiday and don’t fret too much about losing size… it’s not that quick!

As a side note, we mentioned diet earlier on. High protein intake and sufficient calorie intake will also help buffer the amount of time it takes to lose your gains. So focus on nice meaty/high protein meals and make sure you’re not in a calorie deficit, as this will increase the rate at which you lose muscle mass

Cardiovascular fitness…

Cardio bunnies - look away now. Unfortunately you hybrid athletes, runners, cyclists or whatever discipline it is that you love doing, you’re at the highest risk of losing your gains. It’s so hard to build fitness but so easy lose, with noticeable VO2 max (a fitness measurement) losses occurring after just 7 days. Again prior training levels, age and genetics/lifestyle will all play a part in how quickly you lose fitness/bounce back. The only saving grace is it’s a lot easier to pack your running gear and get out for a plod!

I hope this helps debunk a few myths around making and or maintaining your progress whilst you’re away from home