Deliberately took 6 weeks off

[drudixon]

Per a Greg Nuckols thread, decided to take 6 weeks off. Tomorrow will be first day back. Goal was to try and reset rbe (repeated bout effect). The idea is to exceed max lifts that have been stalled for 2 years, excepting Deads. First 2 weeks will be nothing higher than rpe 8 while I reacclimate motor patterns. Theory holds I should get back to where I was in 4-6 weeks, then surpass prior plateaus. We'll see....

Have to say, not lifting was actually really hard....

[RK42]

I would be interested to hear how much strength you lost initially. I took 4 weeks off at one point (long vacation...), and lost about 20% across all lifts. But that was after less than 1 year of lifting. One theory I read was that you don't lose strength as quickly if you have been lifting for a long time.

The good news was that it did indeed come back quite easily.

[dazlittle]

did you take 6 weeks off all exercise? not sure I could handle 6 weeks of doing nothing.

I'm itching to get a sweat going after 2 days of inactivity!

[OldFartTom]

Interesting... I'll watch for the thread getting updated to see the results. I understand the principles but is 6 weeks really the length needed? Wow..

Also is there an effect depending on what you did for the last 6 weeks. I mean for this resetting purpose, would 6 weeks of low activity have been the same as 6 weeks of track sprinting or sled pushing? (What were you up to the last few weeks?)

[grubman]

Subscribed for results...hope you update on this thread.

Even if the results are positive, I don’t think I could/would do this. I guess I’ve come to the point where I enjoy the regiment of lifting too much.

I recently went back to a full body routine from a 6 day push/pull split because my body really needed the days completely off to recover...but after the joys of being able to work out (almost) every day, every other day is torture! Couldn’t imagine stopping altogether anymore.

[StressMonkey]

I'm interested to see your results!

Have to say, not lifting was actually really hard....

I can confirm this.

[ironwill2008]

Per a Greg Nuckols thread, decided to take 6 weeks off. Tomorrow will be first day back. Goal was to try and reset rbe (repeated bout effect). The idea is to exceed max lifts that have been stalled for 2 years, excepting Deads. First 2 weeks will be nothing higher than rpe 8 while I reacclimate motor patterns. Theory holds I should get back to where I was in 4-6 weeks, then surpass prior plateaus. We'll see....

Have to say, not lifting was actually really hard....

I'll give you props for no other reason that actually coming back after such a long layoff. The vast majority would have disappeared from the gym permanently after that long.

[Payton1221]

Dru,

I too am really interested in this. Starting back with an RPE of 8 is a good move. It would be meaningless to try for a current max and perhaps psychologically upsetting. It doesn't matter what your strength is today . . . what we all await is what it'll be in a month or two from now. THUMBSUP.JPG

(reps on spread)

[Mark1T]

Interesting, Dru. 6 weeks is a long time. I could not do that because I would lose too much weight and mass.

But, I do see what you are doing and it is logical. I am sure it will pay off.

[drkelly74]

I'm very interested in how this works out for you as well. I've been lifting about 4.5 years now. I don't think that I have gained much strength over the past year or so. If this works for you, I might try it, but I am not sure I could do it. I am addicted to lifting now.

The only experience I have in taking time off was when I injured my neck about 1.5-2 years after I started lifting. I had to take 3.5 months off to let it heal, and then come back slowly. It took about 3-4 months to get back to where I was before the injury, then the super slow gains process resumed.

[induced_drag]

Wow....that is kind of drastic. Dont know who Greg Nuckols is, but I am not sure (barring significant injury recovery) that I think this would be necessary.

But interested to see how it works, If in the end, it was worth it for you that is all that matters. I dont think I would employ such a tatic unless it was my absolute LAST resort. Heck....long before I did this, I would even question whether additional strength gains were even worth it.

At some point, for all of us strength gain WILL stop. If I were a powerlifter, maybe that would be important.....but overall strength (although very important to me) would never take precedent above overall well being.

All I can say is you must be pretty darn committed to strength. Which in some ways I get, but I can promise you this.....in the "big" picture you are already "strong". I hope you find the balance as happiness and enjoyment can NOT be undervalued. Good luck man.

[ElrondHubbard]

Wow....that is kind of drastic. Dont know who Greg Nuckols is, but I am not sure (barring significant injury recovery) that I think this would be necessary.

But interested to see how it works, If in the end, it was worth it for you that is all that matters. I dont think I would employ such a tatic unless it was my absolute LAST resort. Heck....long before I did this, I would even question whether additional strength gains were even worth it.

At some point, for all of us strength gain WILL stop. If I were a powerlifter, maybe that would be important.....but overall strength (although very important to me) would never take precedent above overall well being.

All I can say is you must be pretty darn committed to strength. Which in some ways I get, but I can promise you this.....in the "big" picture you are already "strong". I hope you find the balance as happiness and enjoyment can NOT be undervalued. Good luck man.

"Greg is a strength coach finishing a degree in Exercise and Sports Science. He's a competitive powerlifter with several all-time, drug-free records in the 220 and 242 weight classes, including best competition lifts of 750 on the squat, 425 bench press, and 710 deadlift."

--https://breakingmuscle.com/coaches/greg-nuckols

Greg Knuckols runs the Stronger By Science blog, which used to go by Strength Theory. There are some excellent articles on that site, and there are some that deal with deloading and time off. I don't remember six weeks being one of the ideas, though.

I just took a one-week break, and I experienced a surprising decline in strength and endurance. I'll be following this to see how well any of us can come back from short breaks.

Of course, I had a 7 month break last year, and I'm still not back to where I was before after 8 months back on the cycle. A little different situation, though.

[drudixon]

Thanks for the encouragement y'all. I don't think I look smaller, and weight has been the same. Balance was iffy. I worked up to high bar singles with 275, and that was more towards 9 than 8, so likely a 30lbs fall off. Instead of just the sticking point being hard, the whole thing sorta felt wobbly. Odd, since I've done this thousands of times before. Tomorrow is bench, so we'll see how that held up.

I have been traveling for work a lot, so other than a lot of yard work, which did include putting out 4k lbs of rock, I've done jack sht. I have some good subs on YouTube, so that's been my motivation while on break.

My alternative to this would have been to do a dirty bulk, which I don't want to do with summer coming. Anyway, might have been a dumb idea, so we'll have to wait and see.

[drudixon]

"Greg is a strength coach finishing a degree in Exercise and Sports Science. He's a competitive powerlifter with several all-time, drug-free records in the 220 and 242 weight classes, including best competition lifts of 750 on the squat, 425 bench press, and 710 deadlift."

--https://breakingmuscle.com/coaches/greg-nuckols

Greg Knuckols runs the Stronger By Science blog, which used to go by Strength Theory. There are some excellent articles on that site, and there are some that deal with deloading and time off. I don't remember six weeks being one of the ideas, though.

I just took a one-week break, and I experienced a surprising decline in strength and endurance. I'll be following this to see how well any of us can come back from short breaks.

Of course, I had a 7 month break last year, and I'm still not back to where I was before after 8 months back on the cycle. A little different situation, though.

Thanks for linking.

[JimmyJonny]

I had to jump in here and throw out my prediction on this... I think you will be absolutely surprised how much that time off can help. I basically did the same thing around Christmas / New Year. I have a lot of issues.....still, but that time off completely healed me up. I came back much stronger physically and mentally . My son and I have been running fierce 5 for some time now and both of us set new records. He just hit his first 275 squat last week....little sloppy but moving up fast .

I can't say 6 weeks is the best because I haven't tried 3 weeks off, or 4. I do know it worked well for me. You lift way heavier and harder than I do so I hope this does the trick for ya.....I say it will

[x-trainer ben]

Dru, psycholgicaly I would think that you would be much better off and excited to come back with tons of motivation. When you do this over time those mini breaks can be very helpful. I hope it works out the way you want it to.

[Payton1221]

I think you will be absolutely surprised how much that time off can help.

I suspect your joints feel GREAT.

[louie0939]

like others im interested in seeing how this all works out. will be following along

[Plagen]

An interesting thread, will be watching it.

Myself, I’m in the middle of a 3-week break. Two main motivations- travel and an upcoming physical, just want to see the results of baseline bloodwork. So nothings but occasional pushups and situps.

It is hard. My body aches from doing nothing

[Plateauplower]

Greg Nuckles has nothing on me. I took 10 years off. Came back COMPLETELY de-trained. Can't say for sure if I would not be farther ahead now had I not rested for that decade....

[drkelly74]

[i]"I just took a one-week break, and I experienced a surprising decline in strength and endurance. I'll be following this to see how well any of us can come back from short breaks.
.

One week (well, 9 full days - two weekends plus the work week), away from the gym always leaves me weaker and with reduced endurance too.

[drudixon]

Did bench paused with 225, so that appears off 30lbs, and Deads were sumo and I stopped at 475 at rpe 8, off maybe 20lbs. All in all I expected a bigger decline in the big 3, so the remaining questions are how long to catch up and can I surpass prior totals

[JimmyJonny]

Checking in on ya Dru, how's is goin ?

[drudixon]

Slow going, back where I was at, now to pick when I'll peak

[2nd_chance]

I'll give you props for no other reason that actually coming back after such a long layoff. The vast majority would have disappeared from the gym permanently after that long.

Bill, I think it's easier for a person who's been lifting consistently for 5+ years to have those kinds of breaks. 6 weeks really isn't that long.

[drudixon]

For those curious, all the sht that hurt before the break hurts again...

[Liftingbuckets]

Grip strength can stop people breaking thru barriers. Rather than doing nothing for 6 weeks it would be better to just train the forearms for a solid month then resume normal training.

[polishedball]

For those curious, all the sht that hurt before the break hurts again...

Sorry to hear about the pain, But are you able to move more weight?
I have always come back stronger after a long lay off, not by my choice the last couple times and a lot longer 6~7 months this last time with shoulder PT. But now 3 months back seeing strength improve beyond where it was.