Exercise Physiology: Theory and Application to Fitness and Performance 9th Edition by Scott Powers, Edward Howley

Exercise 21

How does retraining influence muscle fiber size and strength?

Step 1 of 2

The loss of muscular strength during detraining is mainly due to the changes in the nervous system signaling and not due to muscle atrophy. While the decrease in dynamic strength is upto 30%, atrophy of the muscles accounts only about 10%. This indicates that muscle atrophy is not the primary reason behind the loss of dynamic strength.