Getting Back Into Strength Training After a Layoff
Sep 9th, 2007 by Mehdi Posted in Strength Training
This was my first week back into strength training. I didn’t train from August 8th until September 3rd. 1 week deload, 1 week rest & 17 days holiday. Total of one 1 month of no solid training. Here’s how my first week went.
First Week Experiences. I felt like a beginner this week. Some things I advise are hard when you start out. Example. Beginners often tell me their clavicles hurt on the Overhead Press. This week made me remember how much they do.
What I experienced this week:
- Lack of Endurance. Breathing problems & nauseas.
- Strength Loss. 30% on all exercises. Weak ankles, wrists & grip.
- Technique Problems. Especially on Power Cleans.
- Glute Activation. I had trouble involving the glutes.
- Weak Calluses. Ripped 4 calluses. Painful clavicles on Front Squats.
- Shaking. On every rep with every exercise.
- Soreness. Different from what I’m used to. Much “deeper”.
- Tiredness. Slept more than usual.
Things improved as the workouts went by.
Coming Back From Layoffs. I trained 6 5 days this week. Not the smartest thing. Reason is that I have goals I want to achieve before the end of the year. With only 4 months to go, I have no time to play around.
This is my recommendation when coming back from a layoff. Be it a holiday, injury, illness, kids, work, whatever.
- Start light. Give your body time to re-adapt. Add weight progressively.
- Eat. Get back into your diet. Your muscles need protein for recovery.
- Think positive. Your strength will come back faster compared to a total beginner. Muscle memory will help you.
- Focus on finishing your workout. Your only goal. Even if it’s a bad workout. Finish it. Persistence is key to success.
Length of Layoffs. In my experience layoffs of one week are very productive. The longer the layoff however, the greater the deconditioning. This explains why many:
- Don’t stick with strength training. For long-term success it must be a habit & lifestyle. Coming back from layoffs is hard. Physically & mentally.
- Train on holiday. Holidays are perfect for physical & mental rest. But a lot of you fear 1) losing muscle 2) strength training after layoffs.
I expect that everything - strength, endurance & tone - will be back to normal by the end of the month. But it’s certainly an experience I will remember. Next time my layoff will be shorter.
Ha Ha, Mehdi, I hear tiny violins playing!! When you get to be my age, you will experience all those things after just a one week layoff! Good luck on reaching your goals by the end of the year!
I am facing similar problem
I just went to gym after 1 month lay off due to sickness, I started straight away with heavy weights on DL and my strength was reduced, I was having some prob lifting 120Kg so I didn’t went up..front squats seems brutal too..but it was a good workout…as always best thing is listen to your body…
P.s: Mehdi isnt 6 times a week training going to lead to over training which will lead to more bad then good !!
How old are you Mark? Thanks for wishing me luck.
Harsh. I’m starting smolov for my front squats. Following the plan to the letter, doing first two weeks introduction. First week is 3 front squat workouts followed by 3 lunge workouts (with the goal of stretching).
I trained 5x this week eventually. Had an appointement with the sport doc Friday who took a look at some nagging injuries I have. (I’ll Post about it coming weeks).
Welcome back to the grunt.
I empathize with your “shaking” experience. I’ve just started back after a less lengthy lay-off myself. I also changed gyms, and the new one has a proper power rack, so I found myself doing squats for the first time outside of a Smith machine. I don’t disdain the Smith like some people, because if not for it I wouldn’t have been able to squat for the past year without having to worry about safety issues, and I haven’t had any real problems with the geometry of the lift, e.g., keeping the back relatively upright, even though I’m 6′2″-6′3″ and have relatively long femurs. But what a difference! I ended up 20 kg short of my usual weight, and my arms were shaking so hard on the last couple of sets that I thought my bis, tris and front delts were going to burst through the epidermis and exit the building. I also discovered a few new muscles somewhere beneath the rectus abdominus and in the deep back that may have names, but they’re not known to me. Great stuff!
BTW, as per our last exchange before the vacations, I’m shifting some of my routines from my previous 12 rep, cumulative progressive weight increase sets to 5×5 progressives. Specifically, I’m going to run a little test comparing % gains in the bench press on a 5×5 basis with % gains in the deadlift using my old method and % gains in squats doing a classic 20 rep squat routine. I know it’s a little like comparing apples and oranges and durian, but limiting the comparison to relative % gains should be somewhat meaningful.
I just turned 52 in august. Seriously, though, I notice the effects of a layoff with aerobic activity a lot soon than strength. I’m too scared now too take a long layoff by choice because I know how hard it would be to come back (but I would).
Endurance comes & goes quicker than strength in my experience too Mark. Strength takes longer to build, especially as you advance, but strength loss are less pronounced than loss in endurance.
The problem, and also what I experienced last week, when coming from a lay off is not the strength loss, it’s the loss of endurance. Very painful.
One week later endurance is there again btw. Today’s workout went well.
I squatted for 3 years in the smith machine. Never really gave me problems. However I’d never advise it. As you’ll experience: free weights are much harder (balance) than machines (a smith is a machine in my book), better results. I prefer that my body decides where the weight goes, rather than the machine forcing my body into certain movement patterns.
Anyway. Sounds like you had a fun workout. Pretty much what I had too past week. I remember several years ago. I was watching eurosport. Thai-box competition. One guy received a punch in his face. Everything started to bleed & it was broken. The guy just laughed to the other guy & continued. I did a 20 rep power clean today with 70kg. It was pretty hard, and I was laughing now & then between the reps. It gives a kick when you feel you’re being pushed beyond your current limits, especially endurance wise.
Why don’t you compare how your max single on the bench press increases doing 5×5 compared to your previous bench press approach?
I second what Mehdi says, subject to the caveat - which you may understand well Mark - that it gets geometrically harder to come back as you get older. Both strength and endurance degenerate more and more quickly, and the process picks up momentum the longer it goes on. I’m 56, and this is probably my fifth “comeback” (ahthetically-speaking; I’ve never lifted before) since my late teens. Each time has been (significantly) harder than the previous and, while I can smile about it now, the first three months or so of my current resurrrection - which started about a year ago - were really hell. Once I got going, though, I wouldn’t take a break for anything because, like you Mark, I was quite apprehensive of rapidly getting too comfortable with the softer, easier way and then having to claw back the gains - assuming I got the motivation switched back on. Now, on the other hand, I’m scheduling regular recovery periods in my cycles - albeit generally no more than a deload week or a deload week and a single complete rest week - because doing so produces dramatic new gains on restart starting about a week into the new cycle after a week of re-acclimitization.
Thanks, I will; comparing singles will be a good way of assessing the accuracy of the other comparisons.
Indeed. Good luck with the new approach Sperwer.
Excellent points Sperwer. I too, will take some time to deload for about a week a couple times a year. I will also, at the end of every 12 weeks or so, take a week where everything I do in training is at 50% weight or intensity. Over the last half of 2006 I found myself getting injuries I seldom or never had. While it was at first frustrating, it was also a learning opportunity and I adjusted my training accordingly. While injured, I took up the challenge of working around the the injury(s), which at one point were not one, but two groin injuries!
What kind of groin injury MarkFu? Snapping hip syndrome?
Snapping Hip Syndrome??? You mean SHS? I don’t know what that is but the first injury came from crappy deadlift form where I slightly tweaked it. Then I ignored it and squatted heavy in the same workout and really messed it up. This is when I was pretty new at Crossfit. I injured the other side a month later, when I dropped the leash of my young and strong dog. When she wouldn’t come when I called her, she went flying by me full speed with the leash trailing behind her. I stepped on it hard and she already was in full stride and I could hear the adductor make an odd noise followed by a sharp pain. Interestingly enough, Mark Rippetoe gave me a 14 day squat program that helped speed up the healing.
Snapping hip syndrome is a groin injury. Inflammation of the psoas/piriformis/adductors. I’ve been struggling with this for about a year now. I was going to post about it.
Ive just come back from my 22nd in zante of complete body abuse of lack of sleep far to much acahol and rubbish food for 2weeks.
gym stats before:
squat = 65kg
overhead = 32.5kg
deadlift =75kg
benchpress = 45kg
went to gym yesterday
i couldn’t even manage 25kg on overhead, 5×5
managed 50kg on sqat
had to do 60kg on deadlift, bench press is tommorow.
Im achaching all over!
thats a pritty massive deload, is it going to take me just as long to get back ther as it did in the first place?
Should i still go up by 2.5kg every workout? or should i go up 5kg till im back where i was?
You nearly manage 25kg for 5×5 on the Overhead Press Eddie? That’s not bad. I couldn’t manage 40kg for 5 reps when I got back from holiday, I’d normally do 55kg for 5 reps. You lost less strength than me Eddie.
Take it slowly. You’re not a total beginner anymore. You’ve been working out before leaving. Check the tips above. You did 50kg on the squat, build up from there, adding 2,5kg every workout. You’ll go past the 65kg in no time. Same with the other exercises.
If you can progress with 5kg, do it. If not: 2,5kg works too, it just takes more time. If you have the time, go for 2,5kg, it’s less painful after your deload.
And get your nutrition back on track Eddie. Very important.