Will I lose muscle if I stop working out?

I say, yup. My body, just like yours, has muscles on it. The purpose of those muscles is to move my skeleton. My body has just the right amount of muscle it needs to perform my daily activities.

I always like to refer back to my time in the Navy at sea. My first watch station required me to go up and down sixteen very steep flights of steps. I had to do that once every hour for five hours. After about two weeks my thighs had ballooned up.

My thighs needed to be able to have the strength and endurance to perform this task over and over. Therefore my body needed to adapt. I still remember how my boxers became really tight around my thighs.

After I moved on to more senior watches and no longer needed to walk all those stairs, my body no longer needed the extra strength and endurance in my legs. What do you supposse happened?

If you guessed I lost muscle size in my legs, you’d be correct. They shrank back down to their “normal” size. So, when people want to build a certain body part, like their calves, they go to the gym to work it out.

Well, I have some news for you. If you get bigger muscles, then you need to keep working out in order to keep them. Now you may not have to workout as hard to maintain your current level, but you will need to do something. Now, in some instances people never really shrink back to their original size.

Instead their muscles shrink just a little bit.Ever notice how movies stars lose their muscle size once their done shooting a movie? Look at Hugh Jackman and Chris evans. They already had muscles, but when Hugh Jackman plays wolverine, he bulks up. After he’s done he goes back to his normal size.

And what about Chris Evans. He bulked up a lot for his part as Captain America, compared to how he looked in The Fantastic Four. But take a look at him in The Avengers. He wasn’t as big. It takes a lot of hard work, eating and going to the gym to stay bigger than what your body wants.

Unless we keep working at it, it will go away. Thats’ why I don’t focus my time and energy on gaining size. I focus on strength and endurance. If size comes along for the ride, then that’s a bonus.

What are your thoughts?