Can’t get to the gym? Afraid of losing your gains? Calm down and follow these tips.

Ever been faced with the feeling that you’ll lose all the gains you’ve worked so hard for? If you skip out on a meal or miss a day of lifting that your muscles will atrophy? Yeah, yeah, maybe it sounds a bit paranoid, but it can be a legit concerned for a bodybuilder suffering from an injury, specifically a hard gainer.

For one, if you’re a hardgainer used to having a certain caloric intake, you’ll likely try to keep the calories up after suffering an injury. Hardgainers need to keep their calories up or risk deflating back to their considerably smaller size. But without being able to workout, all those calories could end up packing on the wrong kind of size. You won’t lose all your weight, but you will gain some size around the waist which no bodybuilder finds to be any kind of fun.

Then you have the people who, regardless of their physical health, refuse to do any cardio because it will eat away at all their precious muscle. It may be true that cardio can burn muscle, but refusing to do heart friendly exercise will potentially lead you done the road of having yourself a heart attack down the line.

So if you’re injured, on vacation or simply can’t get into the gym, what can you do to ensure that you won’t lose your gains?

Do what you can

So maybe you can’t make it to the gym for leg day. Does that mean all hope is lost? Not at all. That just means you’ll have to use your head and come up with an alternative to your usual squatting routine. I don’t care what it is, you improvise as best you can so you don’t have an excuse for losing your leg gains. Even if you can’t get to the gym for month, do your best to maintain and keep yourself in fighting form.
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Lower the calories a bit

If you’re unable to get into the gym you shouldn’t keep stuffing your face like you have been before getting injured. Maybe you were on a 3000 calorie bulk before, but since you’re out of the gym you can’t keep loading up on calories. You should steadily drop the calories until the time comes when you can attack the weights again. Does that mean you should drop to 1500 calories a day? Hell no. You just have to control your intake. Everything in moderation.
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Leave in the cardio

A little cardio will never hurt, likely only help. The truth is you’re more likely to lose your gains by eating crappy food rather than doing a bunch of cardio. The amount of cardio you’d have to do would be the equivalent of becoming a marathon runner. It’s an irrational fear that should be put to bed. Cardio is great for strengthening the heart and torching body fat for a more shredded look.
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There are pit falls that could potentially ruin your gains, it’s true, but obsessing over it is counter productive. Some guys let the paranoia set in and allow it to take a hold of them. Sometimes injuries and sickness will keep you away from the gym, but is that really so horrible. If you’re getting sick or injured then it may be sign that you need to slow down, rest and let yourself recover.

Are you obsessed with losing your muscle mass? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to follow Generation Iron on Facebook and Twitter.