1 MONTH off weightlifting, how to preserve muscle and strength on my lifts?

[Anonymous]

I'm away from the gym for a month unfortunately, it's unavoidable. I usually train 4 compound lifts, Overhead Press, Bench Press, Back Squat, T-Bar Rows. What training can I do without a gym to preserve myself?

Bodyweight exercises such as squats and push ups surely are very limited in terms of retaining strength and muscle :/

[just_tired]

With a little equipment you'll have something to work with. You can use bands or heavy backbag to increase the resistance for push-ups. A kettlebell is fairly cheap way to get a decent full body workout. Fine for preserving. There's always a some place to do pull-ups and you can add resistance with bags. A sand bag or two or other heavy bags on shoulders and then squats and lunges. Find a heavy rock and lift it.

Workout equipment can be improvised fairly easily. Just keep a lookout for anything that could be useful.

[Asker]

I did ok, only lost around 5kg of all my lifts, I took my holdall and filled it with lumps of concrete from a building site. I could then strap it to my back and roll over to do pushups, managed to do rows etc too

[just_tired]

Great! 5kg ain't that bad. I've lost lost more in couple weeks.

[CourtJester]

Yup it's a complicated situation. Without any real equipment that you can go heavy on, losing strength is unavoidable. As far as keeping muscle, getting enough protein should help.