A week off training / A week on drinking

Ok. i know that it is bad to drink alcohol, but sometimes a week vacation is just what someone needs. Once a year i try to get out and go on a nice vacation. But this year i have been into training alot harder than in the past. My question is … just HOW bad is it to take a week off of traning for a week of heavy drinking in the sun with some buddies.

Don’t worry about it. I took a week off and actuallly gained a few pounds, I dont’t know if it was fat or muscle but i look the same, and it has stayed with me. My strength also stayed the same. Enjoy your vacation, that what it’s for.

I’ve never heard of anything so stupid on this forum. Since a one night bender can ruin a weeks’ progress, think of how bad a whole week of serious drinking will do. Take your bullshit somewhere else.

reminds me of a quote i heard in a previous t-mag issue…

“one must both work hard and party hard to achieve success. spending too much time at either end of that spectrum will result in failure.”

you shouldn’t be so catastrophically paranoid to take a week off to go drinking with buddies. try to be safe about it, mind you, but things like that are part of life…when you get back in the gym, make up for lost time. you may even find your motivation higher from having to take time off and giving your mind a much needed break.

Actually, the HST program by Bryan Haycock has a week off built in for strtegic deconditioning. The theory is that if you let you muscles get used to being worked, they stop responding by growing; not as well, at least. If you take a week off, Haycock says, your muscles will be deconditioned are more ready for growth. The alcohol is a completely separate issue, but I can only imagine it would decondition you further; I personally think it’ll send you T levels to the toilet, which may completely offset any gains you might potentially make from deconditioning. Your choice, but I would advise not drinking yourself into a stupor; have fun, but don’t take a week off from thinking about your progress

Hi man, i’ve done a week off this years (a Miami trip) i’ve some tips for you.
1-don’t drink every day. 2-3 days MAX(6 berr/max, doN,t drink like stupid). Personaly i’ve more fun in club when I take ephedrine and not alcool.
2-When you drink, keep some protein Bar on your cloth and eat this in the toilet (really).
3-Eat correctly, don’t forget to eat.
4- if you find a gym, just train 2 or 3 session of 30 min.

I’ve follow this protocol in my miami trip and don’t have gain to much fat, just 2lbs.
And 1 week after, I felt like before my trip :slight_smile:

Im guessing it would take me about 2 months at least to get back to where I was if I took a whole week off to drink.

Get hammered, my good man. One week off isn’t going to kill you – in fact, although it won’t to your body any good, it will do the mind wonders (and by that I mean it will relax you and make you happy, not actually intiate any satellite cell growth – though it might weed out the weak neurons (wink wink)). So kill the weak neurons, come back to training and have a good time doing both.

i would just say dont eat too much while drinking, maybe go with liquor over bear, have fun

It’s not as big a deal as some people will have you believe, you’ll lose a little strength, but nothing to worry about. Have fun and be safe.

If you can’t have a little fun, what’s the sense of training so damn hard the rest of the year? Yes, you can take a week off and enjoy yourself. Your body will recover from the hard training during your break. And don’t pay any attention to Drax… he’s a fag!

You should go and spend a week of not going into the gym, instead hang out with your friends in the sun, drinking a cold one. Yep, that’d be a nice vacation.

You're hard work will not be over by just one week of vacation out of the year. Y'know there is a life beyond the four walls of a gym. I say go live it. And Ko did have a nice vacation and he DID NOT lose any gains made in the gym.

Now...*patting you on the butt*, go out the door and have a good time.

I did exactly what you are planning myself last summer. I took a week off of training and went on a bender (a big bender.) When I got back I puked on two different occassions after my running and I lost about five pounds. It should be noted I was on creatine before the bender, and then I was off for a week when I was drinking. I also didn’t eat worth a shit and only consumed maybe two meals per day. My strength was restored after about two or three times in the room. Was it worth it? Damn right, it was a hell of a good time. I am already planning another trip for this summer. You guys who look down on drinking so much need to chill out. Booze isn’t the devil.

All I can say is that if you have real muscles, not the type of virtual ones that Pavel Tsatsouline is teasing bodybuilders about, you can drink yourself to death on your vacation, without losing strength. I just came back from such a vacation and my deadlift is up 10kgs. Go have fun.

i went to the daytona 500 this year, drank constantly, from 10:30 a.m. to midnight, saturday and sunday. drunker than hell all the time… i bet 3 cases of bud that weekend… i recuperated on monday, and worked out tuesday, and didn’t miss a beat… still benched 315 for 5…(but, i went on that bad bender since i knew i was going to diet hard, which i am doing now.)… dont’ worry about it man, have a good time… live life.

A week off and some drinking will not kill a whole years effor in the gym. Get out there and have fun, why be so paranoid about your gains that it holds you back on having fun once a year. Since your binge will lower your test levels a bit with the drinking, why not consider taking Tribex and ZMA to keep them up or maybe MD6 to help burn the excess calories.
I think Drax is a nut!

You were at this year’s Daytona?! Wow! That was one CRAZY race!

How am I a nut? Once in a while someone will post something asking about alchohol’s effects & people always say the same thing, it’s an estrogen agonist, there’s more than 200 calories in one beer, etc so if you drink at all only have a couple once in a while. TC (or maybe C Shugart) said that he only has 1 or 2 in A MONTH, because of it’s effects. There’s someone else on this board (can’t remember who sorry) who fills up a beer can with water or something so it looks like he’s not being a tightass at a party, but is still taking care of himself. I thought if Ethan was serious about training, he shouldn’t even think of doing any heavy drinking. I still can’t believe anyone would think a whole week of that would be a good idea. Maybe a recovery week, but without drinking partying & fucking up sleep patterns, etc.

OH GEEZ DRAX lighten up a bit… one bad week isn’t going to be significant, especially if 99% of the other 51 weeks is close to perfect. now, i totally argee that the effects of alcohol are horrible, but a week isn’t going to be significant… and Patricia, yeah that was one wild time there !!.. i only really remember about 20 minutes of the race. the only thing i remember seeing is when harvick and gordon got into each other and caused a bad wreak, since it happened right in front of us going into turn one. I’m 31 and these races are a little tough to handle. I’m going to bristol and talladega this year too, and those are going to be rough too. but i know it ain’t going to hurt me in the long run. done that sort of things too many times during race weekend :)… in 14 weeks is my honeymoon, in mexico, and i’m going to drink and eat what i want. and not feel a bit bad about it… period…

Drax, I agree with everything you said 100%. If you’re serious about training like you said, it shouldn’t even be considered an issue. I personally have nothing against drinking, but choose not to because I know what it will do to my body, especially in mass quantities. I personally don’t need that additional insult to my liver, brain, and fat cells just to be blotto and act stupid. Now I understand we all have our own priorities which is fine, but why does someone even have to ask if this is ok? If you’re going to go do it, then go do it. You don’t need to get our approval just to justify it for your self. In fact, I’m sure you really do know the effect it is going to have just by your posting for our approval as it is apparent you do have self doubts about this. Whats sad is that a vacation is fine, but I doubt if you will really enjoy it anymore by getting blitzed every day. But we all have to make our own decisions and do what we’re going to do. But I still don’t understand - why do have to ask?