This article, “HOW OFTEN SHOULD YOU TAKE TIME OFF FROM WEIGHTLIFTING?” on exercise .com, makes it sound like it’s just common sense that you take a week off after a few months of lifting.
Is that something people on this forum agree with or disagree with? I am getting close to that point.
I dont. Normally i will just do a significant deload. For example a week or 2 working with weights at 40-60% of 1rm for compounds, limiting volume and not working anywhere near failure on accessories.
From there ill move into my next program and start ramping the weights back up. Taking time off isnt necessary, although its not going to hurt to do so.
Life will give you deloads.
Like @T3hPwnisher said, there’s always going to be something that gets in your way: work trip, you get the flu, maybe you actually take your family on vacation. If I plan on always being in the gym, I probably actually hit a cadence that includes regular deloads
Just do whatever works for you. I never, normally plan to take a whole week off from lifting, but I do sometimes skip or abbreviate a work-out OR if I’m away from home I normally just train for fun as opposed to lifting heavy etc.
I don’t takes weeks off but only because I get so incredibly sore the following week and it takes me 2-3 weeks to get back to my old performance.
Some people seem to benefit from a week off.
I have seen enough people not workout for a week to know that if you are worried about losing gains that is understandable, but completely overblown. MAYBE you lose a teeny, tiny amount but it comes back instantly the next week.
I second the getting super sore after doing nothing. I’ll sometimes do a week where I take a total break from the barbell and do bodyweight only or maybe I’ll play around with some odd lifts like a db one arm snatch or turkish get ups or whatnot.
Mostly I just periodize and and within that periodization I autoregulate to some extent.