How not to lose your muscles?

During confinement, all travel is prohibited except for urgent and vital needs such as going shopping for eat. It is therefore no longer possible to go to the gym or even run outdoors more than 1km from home. Many athletes therefore wonder how not to lose muscle mass during this difficult period. To do this, we are going to list our suggestions for you to keep a minimum of physical activity as well as a suitable diet.

Keeping a physical activity at home

It is therefore advisable to continue to keep a physical activity at home adapting your training with bodyweight exercises or with equipment depending on what you have: elastics, dumbbells, weights, home gym … Continue to s ‘training despite being confined helps to strain your muscle fibers. In another article, we gave you examples of workouts during a lockdown period.

Even if it is not possible to go to the gym or workout in public outdoor places, try to work out for at least 30 minutes at a rate of 4 to 5 sessions per week to avoid stay seated all day. The goal here is not to train every day or to perform too intensive sessions but to practice a minimum of sport for your mental well-being.

Why eat well?

A healthy and balanced diet is more than recommended to avoid losing muscle mass during confinement. It will therefore be necessary to eat enough with a precise dosage of proteins, carbohydrates and lipids. Indeed, proteins have been recognized as being effective in ensuring the maintenance and development of muscle mass (1). So try to focus on protein sources such as white and red meat, eggs, fish, legumes … quality carbohydrates such as rice, whole pasta, quinoa and other complete carbohydrates, and finally quality fats like the good fatty acids that can be found in salmon, avocado, omega 3, and others.

We recommend that you take approximately 2g of protein per kilogram of body weight for your muscle mass, 1g of fat per kilogram of body weight for the general good health of your body and to fill your caloric intake with carbohydrates according to your energy needs. So try to have a calorie intake to maintain your weight and muscle mass and to avoid embarking on a period of mass gain or lean that may ruin all your efforts made during the rest of the year.