Hey coach..I’m have surgery on my jaw so I’m not going to be able to workout for at least month ..they project that …but after I completely recovery ..I should expect to lose a lot strength ? How much volume do u recommend after I completely recover. I was going to go back to beginning and use neurotype three program ..
Well, how much you lose depends on several factors and cannot be predicted.
In a “normal” situation (e.g. someone taking a 1 month layoff to rest and do something else) the loses would be like that:
Week 1: no muscle or strength loss. There can be a decrease in muscle tone and local inflammation giving you the “feeling” of losing muscle, but you didn’t lose anything. Strength can actually go up as you are fresher, more recovered with allows the CNS to send a stronger excitatory drive.
Week 2: provided that protein stayed high (that’s key to slow down muscle loss) there should be no muscle loss yet. Strength should NOT decrease BUT lifting performance can decrease by 5-10% simply from a loss of efficiency on those exercises (intra and intermuscular coordination) which is very quickly regained anyway
Week 3: this is where you can start to have some muscle loss, especially if you were not physically active at all. Strength can also start to decrease and lifting performance can be down by as much as 20% (combination of loss of efficiency and muscle mass).
Week 4: you can start to lose a visible amount of muscle, strength goes down a bit more but lifting performance is not affected too much, maybe losing 22% because the efficiency won’t really get lower than on week 3.
BUT in your situation your body will have a very high cortisol level for a few days, up to the first 2 weeks. This can speed up the muscle loss process. But I have no idea of by how much.
You will likely also be less physically active, which can also speed up muscle and strength loss.
You might also have problems getting enough calories in. Which obviously can speed up muscle loss too.
My honest answer, and not one that you will like because it is both vague, and bad news, is that you will lose muscle and strength. And likely a sigificant amount.
The good news is that you will regain it fairly quickly.
I also have no idea about how much volume you should do because it depends on how much you were doing before. I’d say that a good approach is to do something like:
Week 1: 60% of normal volume
Week 2: 70% of normal volume
Week 3: 80% of normal volume
Week 4: 90% of normal volume
Week 5: back to normal volume
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Thanks for the advice as always …Im just make sure to completely recover from my surgery …Im sure whatever I lose I can rebuild …I plan on lifting for years like I been …I’ll just have future goals to chase …thanks again
Pardon my interest and no sarcasm intended but why can’t you work out for a month? Is it neck related or is it the chance you will grit your teeth and stress the jaw ? Just curious.
Yeah … infection in the jaw …
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