@scrappyblue It does not work like that. You start to lose tone within a week. Muscle memory will not help you. You have to work yourself back into shape. Source
“If only the benefits of exercise were like money earning interest in the bank. It’s a sad but true fact that to maintain your hard-earned workout results, you have to stay fit by continuing to exercise regularly.
In fitness parlance, this is called the reversibility principle. In layman’s terms – use it or lose it. Without a doubt, you will eventually lose whatever fitness benefits you gained by working out when you stop exercising.
This reality can actually discourage a lot of people from even starting to exercise. I have heard many physically inactive people defend their lifestyle by saying, ‘’What’s the use of exercising? When I stop, I’ll just get fatter.’’
Detraining or the technical term for cessation of exercise is also a problem for athletes who get injured.
However, research has shown that it’s not quite as extreme as ‘’use it or lose it’’. It seems to be more like ‘’use it or lose some of it, or maybe all of it’’ depending on how physically fit you were before detraining, what aspect of fitness (endurance, strength, flexibility) is involved, and what preventive measures you take.”