We all need a break from workouts now and again. It happens. Our lives get busy. We catch a cold. We go on vacation. Life simply doesn’t let you keep up with exercises every day without ever taking a break. Should you be worried about what happens to your body when your routine falls apart? If you stop your workouts for a couple of days or – far more extreme – for a month, will you lose all the benefits you’ve been enjoying from those exercises?

What happens to your body during times that you take a break from working out? While one missed workout doesn’t typically make that much of a difference in the grand scheme of things, a handful of missed workouts might have a bigger impact than you might think.

If you usually workout most days and you skip a few in a row, it’s not that big of a deal. Your body will likely have used the time to recover and repair the muscles you use the most so that you’ll be able to recover more quickly once you do head back into your workout schedule. That said, the full impact will likely depend on what you do during the days you take off from exercising. If you spend them being completely sedentary, eating fatty and sugary foods and drinking a lot more alcohol than you usually do, you may not see the benefits you otherwise would.

If you take a break as long as a week, you might notice that your body doesn’t look quite as firm as it did. In that short a span of time, your muscles will start to retain some additional fluids and will lose some of their vitality. Still, on the whole you likely won’t feel too bad and if you head back into your workout schedule after being off for a week, you probably won’t notice too much of a difference other than feeling just slightly rusty. You’ll likely be able to lift just as much and run just as fast.

If a couple of weeks go by without a workout, however, you will certainly feel a difference. The number of mitochondria in your body will dwindle and your muscles will need to make an extra effort in order to power themselves. Your performance will have slipped and you might find that your muscles burn earlier and that you’ll sweat and breathe more heavily earlier on in your workout.

Because of that, even if you can’t keep up your usual workout routine, it’s usually recommended that you do what you can in the meantime so you don’t lose all your progress in a matter of a couple of weeks.