Lindsay: Welcome, welcome to the Lifting Lindsay Podcast.
I feel like it's been a while, guys.
I'm so glad that everybody seemed to really, really
enjoy that creatine episode.
That was the last episode.
If you haven't had a chance to listen to it and you've had any questions, concerns,
wondering if you should take creatine.
I would definitely go ahead and give that episode a listen.
Today we're actually gonna be talking about muscle loss.
And the rate of muscle loss and what causes atrophy.
So this question came up recently on Instagram because I was
talking about everything that's going on with me right now.
Now in the past, I have made it very clear like, look guys, one, two weeks of not
lifting, you're not losing muscle tissue.
Like, don't, don't worry about it.
Calm down.
You're gonna be just fine.
Right.
Because there are a lot of accounts out there that sometimes I feel like,
maybe the influencer knows just enough to kind of do damage and scare people
without giving like full context.
They don't know enough, to be able to really educate people.
So I've had so many women.
As they've been going on vacations and summertime's coming up.
I mean, we still got a few more months, but I'm definitely looking forward to it.
It's, it's, it's in the near future.
And when people start going on vacations, oh, we, we have um,
we have spring break coming up.
People start going on vacations and they get scared 'cause they're like, well.
What do you do?
Do you just bring bands?
Like, how can we prevent muscle loss?
And they're, they're nervous and scared because they have worked
so hard to earn that muscle.
So I totally get it.
But I'm always very quick to say, look guys, one to two weeks
and we're really not seeing.
Muscle loss when people go from lifting weights to not lifting weights.
But, but, but, but I do want to dive a little bit more into this because if
you think about all of the things that go into building muscle, then pretty
much doing the opposite is what's going to cause atrophy, but so we're gonna
be talking about nutrition and protein.
We're gonna be talking about training, complete D training versus lowering
volume, and we're gonna be talking about daily activities because all of these
can on a gradient, be able to show us how much muscle loss and maybe at what
rate we're going to experience it.
Um, so I'm, I'm gonna be talking about.
What is muscle loss too, like even defining, um, muscle hypertrophy.
So we're gonna be talking about my fibular versus sarcoplasmic because I
feel like that's gonna open your eyes to maybe what you're seeing and feeling,
and so can kind of calm you down and you're not scared about this process.
And then we're also, we're gonna end the discussion with
talking about muscle memory.
Although there are debates as to the actual mechanisms of it,
we do know that this exists.
So I'm just gonna kind of go over what do we know about, about muscle memory?
What are we seeing?
And so why we probably shouldn't fear about things like this, you know?
I get it though.
I get it.
I am not an easy muscle gainer.
I have to work really, really hard for any bit of muscle that I get.
So I understand, um, not wanting to see that, that loss.
But I also understand the big picture and, and so I'm, I'm
really not scared about it.
Now, how this all came about, this topic came about recently.
I, because I got a question, somebody, um, asking me, well, you said that,
you know, a week off of training, you're not gonna lose muscle, but then
you just barely said you lost muscle.
So.
I'm hearing conflicting messages.
That was the message that I got.
Let me tell you the story that I was telling on Instagram and then we're gonna
go over, like I said, the, the different types of maybe muscle loss that we're
seeing, or not muscle loss, and then what affects it to a greater degree.
So I was sharing that I am 11 weeks pregnant now.
I have taken about three and a half weeks off of training, and for those of you
who haven't, uh, listened to my Instagram stories, I'll just kind of share briefly.
What happened?
So a few, three and a half weeks ago, we found out two things.
We found out, um, that we had lost one of the twins and
that I had some, a hemorrhage.
And so because of that, they put me on pelvic rest and their first
instructions because there can be varying degrees of what that means, right?
But their first instructions were just absolutely no working out of any kind.
No cardio, no, you know, no speed walking, none of that.
They said you don't need to be on bedrest per se, but you've just got
to really lay low kind of thing.
Well, the, the miscarriage hit me really hard.
That was our sixth miscarriage.
And, and it also, I was just so excited about the twins.
That just, that just really kind of put me in mourning and, and then taking
away the very thing that would help me through a hard time, you know,
lifting weights and, but I understood I, I needed to heal but that was a
hard few days and I honestly laid
pretty low.
I barely got any steps in, just did bare minimum.
And, and keep in mind guys, I was going from, you know, steps,
averaging like 12,000 steps.
And so going from, you know, 12,000 plus steps to um, just.
physically and em, and emotionally going through this, this loss and,
and now pelvic rest and, and it just kind of hit me pretty hard.
And anyway, so I, um, went from that to the first few days, you know,
barely even like a thousand steps.
And then I got hit by this awful, awful cold.
And you know how they always joke around about how men, like it's like a cold
and it puts 'em into bed for weeks.
Like that's me.
That is literally me.
Every time somebody jokes around about that and they're like,
and he was just a little cold.
I'm like, no, I get it though because my sinuses don't drain very well.
So it always turns into a massive infection and it's
like miserable with headaches.
And this time it like put me between the nausea and the weakness and feeling super
sick from the pregnancy plus the cold.
I was in bed all week and so barely getting a thousand steps.
Um, and then I.
I started getting massive migraines and I was just so grateful that Alex worked
from home and that we had a community around us that when they found out about
the miscarriage, just swooped in and family and friends, just taking care
of us and stopping by and bringing us just, food and flowers, but mostly food.
'cause I love food and I need food and I couldn't, I really, uh, was
going through the fruit aversions too, so I couldn't make meals, but I
couldn't eat very many meals either.
And I was living off of toast and honey and butter.
That was pretty much it.
Major aversions to protein, just any kind of food with any nutrient in it.
Pretty much just nutrient food aversions is what I was dealing with.
And it's so funny 'cause you have these ideas of, you know, I don't, I have
no memory of my previous pregnancies being like this, and I've even asked
Alex like, do I just not remember?
It's like a gift from God being like, well, she's not gonna have another
one if she remembers, well, I'm just gonna wipe that clean, right?
As they talk a lot about the, the major endorphins, post pregnancy,
it's almost like this clearing out process of any of the hard right.
Um, but anyway, so I asked Alex and he goes, no, no, no.
This pregnancy has been very different.
You know, with, um, he said, Hazel, you had some warning sickness for a
few hours and then you were fine link.
There was barely even that you continue to lift.
He's like, this one is wild because.
This one.
It wasn't just nausea and morning sickness.
It was like all day.
So, you know, you just don't know how things are going to affect you.
And, and I wa was planning, this was not my plan.
I had, I had great plan.
It was an amazing plan.
I think, I think God needs to listen to my plans a little bit more often because
I, I, it was just gonna, I was gonna be rocking this, but reality hits and that
it doesn't always turn out that way.
And I had to prac practice being mentally flexible and, and.
And what I mean by that is there'd be like some pity party moments in bed.
'cause I was just like sick of being in bed and then there were just like,
I was overwhelmed with gratitude and then I'm like, no, and you
gotta be mentally flexible, Lindsay, this is a great time to practice.
Like all of these, principles you love studying.
And I'd go from that and then I'd go back to my part pity party and it's
like, you know, it's all over the board, but I'm like, Hey look, I was,
I was trying, I'm trying to, you know, practice and work through the fact that
this was pregnancy was not going had as I had experienced before and stuff.
But, but anyways, so it turns out there was just one thing after another.
I started having some massive migraines that actually kept me in bed too.
And pretty soon before I know it, three and a half weeks have gone by and I
have been most bedridden eating, barely, like just, just whatever it was that
I could keep down that sounded good.
And, um, so it.
Definitely it was not, you know, working out, getting steps, um, not eating my
usual nutrient dense and protein foods.
It was just, I was in pure survival.
That was it.
That's just like all I, I've been focusing on.
So I was sharing this in stories that, uh, it's been interesting
'cause on last Friday I got the go ahead to start, you know,
incorporating lower body workouts again.
Just making sure I didn't do really, really heavy deadlift or squats
to put a lot of pressure on the pelvic floor as I continue to heal.
But that was really exciting and I had just some, honestly,
today, Monday, this is March 25th.
This has been the first day in two months.
That, well, maybe like a month and a half that I've actually like, woke up
not feeling just crummy, just sick.
And so that was really exciting.
But then there's this problem.
I'm like, oh, but if I'm not sick, then, you know, there's that worry
of of, 'cause we have lost, uh, a lot of, had a lot of miscarriages around.
11 to 13 weeks.
So, so we're always a bit nervous about that.
But anyways, today has been a great day.
I was able to wake up, have high energy, so I was able to get
into the gym and, and work out.
But I was sharing on stories, you know, I go from being very active, feeling very,
very strong to getting out of breath, just getting on my my walking pad barely
walking like this has been, this has been definitely a practice in, in flexibility
and, but anyway, so, um, I was sharing in Instagram stories that, it's interesting
because my weight has stayed the same, but my body composition has greatly changed.
So I have seen an increase in body fat and a decrease in muscle size.
So I, as, as I share these things, I just really want to make it
clear that I'm, I really do.
This is just factual.
I'm, I'm pregnant guys.
I understand that.
I'm, I love the process.
I love being fit.
I love being strong.
I've been doing this for a while.
I feel like I'm getting older.
Like I feel like my, my priorities are just, they're just different.
They're, I, I don't know.
To me, I'm like, this is a gain.
This is 100% a gain.
Women have messaged me saying, well, do you feel like, you know,
are you worried that you've lost?
I'm like, I've lost.
Nothing but I, I've gained a baby.
I've gained everything.
So I don't look at this as a loss.
I also look at it as a wonderful opportunity to practice
flexibility and accepting.
My body in all stages and being flexible with a, I, I've said this many, many
times, I really do believe that women's bodies are meant to alter and change
and, and it happens once a month.
You know, we feel bloated, then we feel only, they just, they're,
they're, they're just, we've got to practice and, and be more, I feel
like accepting of the fluidity of.
The process in our bodies and, but also of pregnancy.
Um, it's, to me, it, it's such a gain.
I've, I've lost nothing.
So when I discuss things like this of like my body composition has changed,
I'm not like, how can I get back?
It's like, like I still have like two more trimesters, like I'm not
getting back and anytime soon, and that's not where my mental energy
should even remotely be, right?
There are some times when, when life happens and.
I'm not talking about pregnancy or I'm talking about anything like
there's a loss of a loved one.
There's, there's a traumatic experience, there's a, you know, a loss of a future
that you thought you'd have and now you're going through a mourning that of,
of acceptance, any type of life change.
Um.
I think should help us practice being mentally, emotionally,
and physically flexible.
There are times where I'm gonna look leaner, and then there's gonna
be other times where I'm like, ah, I feel a pull of, oh, keep
going to the gym, stay strong.
Um, keep a healthy lifestyle.
But, but right now.
You've gotta focus on, I've, I've had this where it's like, you've gotta
focus on a little bit more on this child or this relationship, or these
things need to take precedence and, and my body may fluctuate during that.
I just look at it as like, okay, this is a practice of just like allowing
myself to be flexible with life.
Okay.
So I think it's important to just let you like to, to say that out
loud and to let you know when I say my, my body composition is changing.
I'm not like, well now I don't have any worth, uh, because I have more body fat
and less muscle and, and now I don't think, you know, I have anything to
contribute or I'm beautiful or whatnot.
That's not, that's not what that means.
What it means is that life is calling my mental energy in another direction.
And you know, for a time period I couldn't get into the gym, but, but now I can and
I'm gonna go not, so I look a certain way.
Because guess what, over this nine months, I'm not looking a certain way.
Right?
I've lost all the, the, like, I'm not gonna have a lean stomach over the
next, so it is literally, I am not going right now to look a certain way.
It is, I'm going to remain healthy and strong for myself and my baby
because there are great benefits.
That they have seen in those women who are able to stay even a little active.
There are wonderful benefits that they are seeing in the health of that child.
Um, and so I do it for me and I do it for baby, but I, I'm not doing
it to look a certain way right now.
So I was sharing a lot of this.
I shared that my body composition has changed and fat has increased,
and muscle size has decreased.
It's, I, I haven't lost all my muscle, but there's a decrease that I can
definitely see when I look in the mirror.
And so I had somebody message me and say, wait, wait, wait.
But you said that after a week you're not gonna lose, you know, muscle.
But now you're saying you've lost muscle.
So what is it?
So let's talk about a few of these topics.
When we refer to muscle size, we can be referring in hypertrophy.
There are different types of hypertrophy.
So typically sometimes people will talk about sarcoplasmic hypertrophy.
Have you ever heard them say Sarcoplasmic or My fibular?
Typically when they say sarcoplasmic hypertrophy.
That seems to be focusing more on an increase in the muscle glycogen storage.
So that means glucose is going to, and the amount of carbs.
'cause you know, glucose, carbs, pretty much same thing, right?
Same thing.
So the amount of carbs that you have can influence.
Even the look and size of your muscle.
So sometimes people will go through like keto diets and they'll lose a lot of body
fat and then when, and they can do a dexa.
I remember a, an influencer doing a dexa.
At the end of this keto diet, and she was like, oh, I've, you know
my, I haven't gained any muscle.
In fact, this is saying that I've lost muscle.
I don't get it.
And then she reversed out of the keto, she started introducing
carbs again, and she's like, whoa.
In like a month, I've put on five pounds of muscle and everybody,
'cause that's what her Dexus said, and everybody's like, whoa.
Like okay, this is sometimes what, this is.
What worries me about social media is I'm like, okay.
If you don't know how to read Dexus and you don't know what's going on, then I
don't know if you should be using 'em.
And I don't know if you should be posting 'em to the public because
you're not giving education behind it.
You're not.
So it kind of is frustrating for me, but.
What happened there is she had a decrease in glycogen storage because
she wasn't ha eating as many carbs.
So she, I'm sure when she did her dexa, she did see a, a decrease in muscle.
But this was sarcoplasmic, this was glycogen storage.
Right?
Because her glyco and storage had been depleted more and she
wasn't filling it up with, um.
With carbs, with, you know, glucose and, and, and water.
So that's what she was seeing.
And then all of a sudden she reintroduces carbs and she's also lifting weights
and where's that gonna go, y'all?
Well, it's gonna, that is gonna be a beautiful thing for your muscles.
You're gonna fill right up and you're gonna look so good.
I mean, anybody who's ever done a bodybuilding competition, this is
what you do, you refill before the show so that you look your peak.
Best you are just full.
And that is a, uh, it can they top you off through this process through using carbs.
They're topping you off and you just come in looking really nice and full.
So, you know, to bodybuilders this is something that they know inherently.
It's like, oh yeah, I know I can get a little bit fuller, look
a little bit better post carb day when I'm just topped off.
Right?
So.
that is sarcoplasmic hypertrophy and, and what we're seeing a lot
of, because studies have shown
after two weeks, you're really not of de training.
So somebody who's been lifting weights and then they go and do two weeks of
de training and go ahead in the notes, I'm gonna put a ton of different
studies that point to these things.
So we have a ton of studies on this, but two weeks of de training didn't show any
noticeable muscle loss in that timeframe.
Now, sometimes I will have people say like, after vacation, or I
felt this way after vacation.
They're like, oh, I, I wasn't working out.
This was like a seven to 14 day vacation or whatnot.
I haven't been training, and I did notice that I, I didn't seem as full.
So a lot of researchers.
I actually, I believe this too.
I really do believe what we're seeing is more of a depletion in glycogen storage.
We're not seeing my fibular loss.
Okay, so that's another term that you may hear.
Myo fbri, myo fibular hypertrophy.
So what are myofibrils.
If you were to Google and look up a muscle cell, okay, you're gonna
see it looks like they're rod like organelles of the muscle cell, okay?
That's what myofibrils are.
So skeletal muscles are composed of long tubular cells.
These are muscle fibers, and these cells contain many chains.
Of my FALs.
Okay, so when we're talking about my fibular hypertrophy, we're talking
usually about this increase of my FALs.
So when we're looking at real muscle loss, we're not looking
at depletion of glycogen stores.
Okay?
That's usually what you see, two weeks, maybe even three weeks.
Past that, maybe three plus, and we'll talk about what influences
that, at what rate you would really start losing this in this regard.
Real muscle loss.
We're talking about Myo.
Fibular.
Okay, so.
One, two, maybe even three weeks.
Are you really seeing muscle loss?
No.
Probably just that glycogen storage going down and, and you
can quickly fill that back up.
Okay, so today when I was sharing my stories, I was saying
that I'm actually going to be.
Tracking.
I haven't tracked for a while, but I'm gonna track at maintenance and
I'm going to really increase my carbs.
Why?
Well, it's because of what I just barely explained to you about
the sarcoplasmic hypertrophy.
I really wanna top off my glycogen stores, so I have seen this depletion.
I think it's mostly glycogen depletion, but I actually do
think it is myo fibular as well.
And I'm not gonna freak out about that.
Once again, I know about muscle memory, um, and I know how to get it back.
So I, I'm, I'm really not worried about it.
It's taken me years and years and years to put it on.
Yes.
But it doesn't take that long.
I mean, we can do it, put it back on in weeks.
So today I was explaining that I'm gonna be,
like I said, increasing my carb intake, especially around my workouts.
Um, but throughout the day obviously as well.
I'm gonna be going in, I'm gonna be, since I haven't been training, I don't wanna go
in and just destroy myself with volume.
Because I would be so sore, and so, because I'm so detrained at this point.
So usually when I go back in, after being off for especially this long, like for,
I've had surgeries, I've had pregnancies, I, um, like labor and delivery that
I've then taken time off, right?
So.
What I do when I go back in is I do just this within my nutrition, make
sure my protein is high, make sure my carbs are really high, and then I do
something called incomplete rest method.
And I'm gonna train more in the shortened, contracted position.
Uh, think of.
Like a squat would be a lengthened position for the glutes.
A uh, glute bridge or a cable kickback would be, uh, focusing on
the shortened contracted position.
Okay.
Leg extension, shortened contracted position, dumbbell y raises, uh, that
would be the, uh, dealt, medial dealt, um, contracted, shortened position.
I'm going to be choosing those so that I don't.
Get too sore and, um, so that I can also, I'll do like eight to
10 reps and then rest for 15 to 30 seconds and then do another eight
to 10 reps, and I'll actually do like six to eight sets of that.
And I, it, they're fast workouts, so it's usually like half an hour.
I'm done.
I usually sip on some dextrose carbs during, and then post I get another hit
of carbs, and this is a really great way.
That you can refill these glycogen stores pretty quickly.
Now, you don't have to do that.
You can just do a little bit higher volume.
I just don't like being super, super sore when I first go in.
And so if you train high volume in lengthened positions, you're
probably gonna be getting more sore.
So.
Um, if you go in and do more of like the short and contracted, that's
gonna help prevent that, uh, as well.
But anyway, so that's how I'm gonna be training, that's my nutrition.
Um, but let's go back to, well then how do we prevent this myo fibular hypertrophy?
Um, loss.
Like that's really the atrophy that we're worried about.
Um, and, and once again, I always tell people, I just don't think
you should be too worried about it, but let's go over the studies
and what, what they're showing.
So typically we're seeing like a, a four, three to four weeks plus where we're
thinking, okay, this is now going into myo fibular, muscle shrinking, um, or atrophy.
But once again, there's a few things that go into this, right?
A few things that can help lessen it or increase it.
So if you think about everything that contributes to building muscle,
you know, you've gotta have good training and good training volume.
I.
Right.
So that's gonna help.
If you stop doing training, well then obviously three
plus weeks we can see atrophy.
But what if you can do a little bit of training?
Is that gonna reduce it?
Yes.
In fact, we have studies a, a study showing that reducing volume by one ninth.
Allowed for muscle maintenance up to seven plus months.
Kay.
Now this was for those that were under 60, 60 and older, um, they have
a higher degree of atrophy, and so they probably need a more volume, not
just one ninth to maintain, but So what does that look like one ninth?
Well, if you're going in.
Lifting four times a week doing like upper body, lower body splits.
It's like the easiest way to really set up a training program.
Then you could technically, if, if you just do body weights at home,
even high rep pushing to that, burn, that failure, you can be maintaining.
So you don't even really need to go into the gym.
You can be doing a lot of body weight at at home that can help you maintain the
muscle that you've worked so hard for.
So once again, I want you to think about this as a gradient.
It's not like, well, I'm not doing what I was doing before, so therefore
I'm gonna lose all my muscle.
That's not it at all.
It's not that black and white.
It's this gradient of you can actually just do one ninth of the volume
and you're, you're gonna maintain.
It's a, it's way easier to maintain muscle than to build muscle.
Okay.
So just that is gonna help.
Um, another thing that will help is just getting up and walking and
doing regular daily activities.
There is a huge difference between those who stop training plus or on
bedrest versus those that stop training, but can continue to just move around.
Just keeping overall activity levels high.
So a lot of times when people come to me and they say, well, I'm getting a surgery.
I'm not gonna be able to train for six weeks.
What do I do?
I always tell 'em, walk, walk.
Um, more than likely your surgery we'll still allow for you to walk.
If you can't walk.
Let's say it was like a knee surgery ankle, lower body.
Even if you can, uh, go into the gym, a lot of times they have machines
where you just use your arms, just get in there and just use your arms.
Then there are those times where it's like, no, I can't do anything.
I can't, you know, um, use any type of those machines.
Uh, but sometimes they still allow like the walking around,
and that is what I tell people.
You know, the population that faces the most and the quickest atrophy
are astronauts when they go into space and there's no gravity.
It is absolutely incredible, the amount of atrophy, but we can
mitigate a lot of that just by continuing to get up and walk around.
Another thing too is nutrition and protein.
So our bodies are in this constant state of breaking down
protein and building it back up.
Okay, so you don't wanna end the day by being in a net negative protein state.
That means we haven't built it back up the wall.
I think of it as a wall.
I don't know why, but I always think of it as a wall.
And if you just keep the wall the same level.
Then you're just gonna be maintaining, you know, if you
get enough protein, we can build.
If you don't, if the wall keeps getting shorter and shorter, that's, that's
when you're in the net negative state.
And that's where, we heighten the chances of atrophy, especially if
we're in a calorie deficit too.
'cause that can increase and have negative impacts on muscle protein synthesis when
we're not getting enough protein too.
So it's, those two things really combine.
So post-surgery, I tell people, make sure that protein is still sufficient.
You're not trying to be in some crazy calorie deficit because you
can't train to counter any of that.
So if you want to maintain muscle, then stay as close to maintenance.
Have enough protein and walk.
Just move as much as you healthily can.
One of the reasons why I said I actually do think that mine wasn't just glycogen
storage depletion was actually because of the amount of bed rest that I was on.
It mixed.
It was, it was literally, I nailed all three of those.
Wasn't even trying, just nailed them.
That's how good I am.
Protein.
I was having such massive protein aversions.
I wasn't even getting sedentary protein rates.
I wasn't even hitting that.
Um, I mean, some days like 20 grams, like that was it.
, and, and I'm just kind of guessing, 'cause once again I wasn't tracking
during this time, but just kind of guessing from what I was eating that day.
I'm like, woo, I don't, I didn't.
Get enough protein with that, right?
So really low protein, that in and of itself is going to lead
to the negative, uh, net protein.
Um, and then the fact that I'm not doing any type of training.
Um, and then the fact that most of the time I was, I was bedridden.
So then what do you do?
What do I do?
Do I sit here and moan and complain that life is over because I lost all
that muscle that I worked so, so, so, so hard for, no, um, I can, I, I'm back
to eating my usual high protein foods.
I'm really grateful for that.
I still have trouble with chicken.
Um, a few, like probably five weeks ago, I was sharing on Instagram stories,
the fact that, uh, Costco sells bulk,
shredded Rotti rotisserie chicken, and it's awesome just to buy it.
We had that in the fridge and I would dry heave every time I would see it.
I, it was so disturbing.
Right now I'm still having a little chicken aversion, but
I'm slowly getting over it.
The thought of that rotisserie chicken doesn't make me dry heave,
which is, I think, a step in the right direction, but it's still, um.
For, I, I can't, it is so weird.
It's like this mental block.
I, I can't, I could not buy that and I could not put it
into any food that I would eat.
It's still, still having some aversions there, but for the most part, my other
high protein meals I can still enjoy.
Um, and, and I'm back to lifting.
Today was my first day really back.
I'm excited to be back.
I was able to even do a nice 45 minute walk after, um, my lift.
I'm just feeling really good.
Now there are debates as to the actual mechanisms in the body that create
this and allow for it, but we do know.
We do know that there are people who literally spend years and years and years
building the physique of their dreams.
They have something happen where they lose a lot of that muscle tissue, but
what's crazy is they're able to gain it back and at the rate, the rate is so.
Fast.
Um, that even if I was like, okay, I lost like five pounds in muscle,
I know that I can put it right back on within a month or two.
It like it would be really fast, you know, years to gain it, but
we'd be able to put it on so much quicker now that it has been there.
Now, I did wanna share, I forgot to mention these, these studies,
like a few of these studies that I thought were really interesting.
This was talking about how mainly like these studies weren't seeing reduction
in lean mass in until about six weeks.
So it seems like four weeks kind of began and after six weeks they
saw reduction, 42% lean mass.
Um, but that's very deceiving.
Let me explain why the o the other study was eight weeks lost 52% Now.
The study, like I said, sounds really scary, like I'm
gonna lose 50% of my muscle.
Like that's not actually what it was.
What they were saying was they took some newbies and they trained them
for like eight weeks, and they saw an increase in 10% muscle mass.
Then after that, they went another eight weeks de training, so they weren't allowed
to train anymore, and by the end of the eight weeks they saw 5% of that gone.
So they lost that 50% that they'd put on.
Right.
So that's what that means there.
So, but once again, like I said, muscle memory, we're seeing these
things so quickly coming back on.
So anything that you do lose because you have to take a
few months off of training, I.
Like I said, don't be, don't be frustrated or disheartened because one,
you, you needed the surgery, right?
You needed that, and so this is a gain because you gained the
benefits of that surgery and then within a few months it's like.
It doesn't matter.
The muscle's back, the muscle's back.
Just get back to maintenance, get back to eating enough protein,
start training hard again.
Um, and, and you're gonna be just fine.
So hopefully this, um, this episode has been helpful.
One to really just.
Get rid of a lot of the fear behind if life hits and you have to step
away from training, it's okay.
You're gonna be fine, right?
Like, you know what you need to do.
Get back in the gym, start working hard.
Just put your head down.
Don't I just wanna strongly emphasize this, like our mental energy.
It's, at least this is how I feel.
For me, it's sacred and I, I can't waste it on things that don't really matter.
Okay?
So think about, think about that, like don't waste mental energy on
things outside of your control.
Things that don't matter.
Instead, take all of that.
Take all of that that you would usually put towards worrying,
which doesn't do anything.
Take all of that mental energy and put it towards what will
bring the change that you want.
Hey, I hope that that's your biggest takeaway from this, but anyways,
you guys have an incredible.
Week.
I just wanna thank so many of you for your touching messages that I've
received on Instagram and on Be Strong my community, and, uh, thank you so much for.
Being our cheerleaders throughout this process of pregnancy.
Um, the in vitro process the infertility, it's, it's extremely
draining, um, and heartbreaking.
So thank you so much for those that have reached out, and
supported us through this.
You guys have a wonderful week.