I returned to the gym on Tuesday after my holiday and thought I’d do my 5s week and just hit prescribed reps - last time I did my 5s week on deadlift I got 8 reps, but when I returned on Tuesday I couldn’t even get 1! I did bench the following day and got the prescribed reps so I assumed deadlift was just a bad day. What do people find the lift that suffers most after a break is? Also, do you guys think I’ll be back in the groove next week? (I was planning doing 5s week prescribed reps to get back into it, and then starting the cycle again with 5s week going all out).
Probably worth noting last time I did 5s week was six weeks ago, as I did 5s, 3s, 5/3/1, deload then had a two week holiday.
I’d do a test week, personally. If you can’t hit one then a guess at a drop is irrelevant, especially if your lifts are inconsistent. Six weeks is a pretty long time.
Personally, I find whatever movement I train first suffers the most, then as the week progresses and I get more into the groove everything starts to gel together.
[quote]Pat_Pantera wrote:
Yeah I think that’s a good idea. It’s just a bit demoralising to put all that hard work in then take a break and lose all that strength! [/quote]
You most likely haven’t lost strength or not much, just the ability to apply it. Two or three weeks to get the movement patterns back and you’ll be fine.
Deadlifts are the most variable for me. I can have huge variations in a 2 week block but as for actually losing it… Definitely squats. Mobility is the worst aspect (long legs)
“After a layoff of 2-3 weeks, you might lose 5-10% of your strength, but you won’t be losing much muscle mass (if at all) and the loss of strength will be mostly due to lost neural adaptations.”