Skip a week for gains?

[Itburnstopee]

I just got over a cold that was bad enough that I had little strength, like I had to drop weight by up to 50lbs. I said screw it I need my rest and slept most of the 2 weeks. When I went back two days ago, my bench increased 10lbs when I struggled to get it to go higher for a month and a half. It's still light and nothing to brag about but I was able to push 145 for 4x5 as opossed to my pathetic 135 for 3x5. In the past year and 2 months that I've been lifting I've only completely taken two other breaks. One was when I temporarily had no access to the gym and the other was after a surgery. The first one was a month long and after that month of no lifting I had started to increase on my lifts, taking them from 80-90lbs all the way to 115-135. Are these breaks beneficial to me; I.e. does it take my body longer to repair? Don't think I'm being lazy because I cannot stand it when I'm not lifting, I get irritable and have trouble sleeping.

 

[PillarofBalance]

99% of us don't touch a weight for a week prior to a meet. And 2 weeks out is usually either just opener or a low percentage of it. That should be an indication that recovery is important.

 

[John Ziegler]

I generally lift every 4th day but have in the past done other methods of metabolic trickery. For example on a Monday bench and squat at noon. Then for the next three days eat big meals at 11 and take a nap at noon. With this method a week off is ok but not going to do much.

Now if I was doing chest & bi's Monday, legs & shoulders Wednesday, back & tri's Friday then I would do that for 3 weeks then take a week off for the gain time.

Knowing your individual metabolism and how to manipulate it will help you gain. Not everyones ideas and theories are going to be standard issue.

 

[ECKSRATED]

Everyone needs some time off here and there. We beat our bodies up doing this stuff.

 

[bubbagump]

A day off always does me good. As long as it's not every other day... lately it has been and I'm a lazy mofo. I do good taking a Saturday or Sunday off. Even a week every now and then. More than that and I start to lose motivation. It fukks with my head. I don't need that shit.

 

[{'Calcul08'}]

I've went from no days off to having at least Fridays off and Wednesdays the lightest of lifting days. Friday's are to catch up on sleep and massive carb loading.

Since everyone's different with this sort of thing, it's best to listen to your body and go from there.. If you're going towards maxx lifting, then a day or two off should do wonders.

 

[AndroSport]

As stated above a few different times… listen to your body.

I used to take a 1 week break every so often… like you, this originally started unintentionally back in the day, until i realized the benefit.

I ended up doing it on a regular cycle every couple months. Sometimes more if my work/travel schedule threw some crazy obstacles at me.

Got as much rest as possible… ate a lot but didn't go crazy. I called it my GROW WEEK.

You respond to it obviously so use it, sparingly, to your advantage.

 

[SuperBane]

listening to your body is key. Nobody wants a long layoff because of an injury. Some of us had to learn the hard way.

 

[Strength athlete]

I suppose I'll throw my 2 cents in on this one. Although you went through an illness you were still resting and recovering. Just as stated above, nearly all strength competitors will take a break/deload period prior to competition. It's basic supercompensation. You have been stressing your body for the past 6 weeks of training without break. For the amount of time you have been working out, I would assume that you have moved beyond a beginners classification, and are no longer able to supercompensate from workout to workout (make poundage increases each training session), so you must apply a greater stress over a longer period of time. At the end of 6 weeks, I would imagine you are in quite a fatigue deficit. After a 2 week layoff your body has been able to heal, and strengthen to the point where it can handle a heavier load. It has been my personal experience, and observation that short layoff/deload is needed from time to time (even with programs that utilize auto-regulation) deloads offer the entire body time to recover. Musculature, neurological, connective tissues, etc. You can not continue to push forward at a high level without rest, before something will break. I always recommend rest periods in yearly training. Even to those who don't compete. Be it a planned deload, or just listening to your body. I tried to compress my rant the best that I could. Like I said, it's just my 2 cents, and I hope it helped with your question and in determining a decision for your training.

 

[Angrybird]

I agree with pillarofbalance, although I'm new to the powerlifting scene and can offer nothing ground breaking, what I can tell you from recent experience is my 1st ever bench meet (this past summer actually ) my coach/training partner told me to hit my opener on a Thursday finish the week normally on Friday take the whole week off then compete on Saturday. Taking that time off drove me nuts, I thought I was getting lazy and week but I tell you what man when I got under that bar Saturday I broke my best PR on my 2nd attempt!

Time off can definitely lead to gains!