Do you guys deload or take a week off?

[USMuscle9403]

I started my week off, zero weight training, yesterday and will continue for one week. I do this every three months after I get blood. All I do on my days off or an hour or two walk a bit of stretching and some meditation (which I do everyday anyway).
I think your body needs to take a break every now and again unless you’re Superman and they are pretty rare near as I can tell. I train full body workouts three times a week so a week off is needed both mentally and physically. split workouts in many ways are easier on the body but since you have more time to work each body part I think you keep adding exercises and that quickly leads to over training. That is been my experience at least.

So take your time off and enjoy yourself. You deserve it so you should take it And not feel guilty about it. In a weeks time you will lose nothing of significance so don’t worry about that.

All my opinion of course.

Great post, Ron, thank you, sir...

My issue is that it's easy to get lazy quickly. I was used to being awake at 300-400am; boy, sleeping until 5am sure felt great lol...even 6am, unheard of, for me

It's just a matter of getting back into routine for me. I see the obvious changes in my physique a 32 normally fits OK, now getting a bit sloppy..
Yuck

 

[N.L....M.....]

I take 7-10 days off. If I step foot into a gym I’m going to drive myself into the ground. I can’t go to the gym and just get a pump or go through the motions.

 

[machomadness22]

This is very effective for me also. Say on a push/pull/legs.

Wk1: 3x a week
Wk2: 4x a week
Wk3: 5x a week
Wk4: 5x a week
Wk5: 5x a week
Repeat

Do you slowly increase calories or does it stay the same with that schedule?

 

[alfresco]

Great post, Ron, thank you, sir...

My issue is that it's easy to get lazy quickly. I was used to being awake at 300-400am; boy, sleeping until 5am sure felt great lol...even 6am, unheard of, for me

It's just a matter of getting back into routine for me. I see the obvious changes in my physique a 32 normally fits OK, now getting a bit sloppy..
Yuck

I hear you. I don’t need that much sleep as well. Maybe five hours. I’ve been up since four.

It was tough for me to get back into the swing of things at the gym when it opened back

It was tough for me to get back into the swing of things at the gym when it opened back fully, but the hardest part for me is just getting out of the house and going to the gym. Once I am there I’ll look for ways not to be there but I always wind up finishing my work out and feeling better for it.

My wife and I were on a 6 Week Rd. trip in our new sports mobile and as I anticipated I lost some weight, 15 pounds which was more than I thought. But it suits me, looks good on me, even If my pants fall off my ass. I’m trying to keep it off which

 

[Matsuo Munefusa]

I started my week off, zero weight training, yesterday and will continue for one week. I do this every three months after I get blood. All I do on my days off or an hour or two walk a bit of stretching and some meditation (which I do everyday anyway).
I think your body needs to take a break every now and again unless you’re Superman and they are pretty rare near as I can tell. I train full body workouts three times a week so a week off is needed both mentally and physically. split workouts in many ways are easier on the body but since you have more time to work each body part I think you keep adding exercises and that quickly leads to over training. That is been my experience at least.

So take your time off and enjoy yourself. You deserve it so you should take it And not feel guilty about it. In a weeks time you will lose nothing of significance so don’t worry about that.

All my opinion of course.

Great information and wisdom.

 

[goback2013]

Deloads are for little bitches.

Just kidding I’m falling apart, I absolutely have to take time off training, sadly enough.

i noticed a much improved/reduced recovery time while running trest.
for example, i have lifted moderately heavy while also running 6 miles after my weight sessions.
also helps i take a dip into the cold pacific waters right after my runs.
like yesterday, after my run, my shoulder was feeling a slight pinch from an earlier 10 sets of bench press.
immediately diving into the cold water i noticed the pain went away.. could have been the shock of the temperature change.
but no knee issues.. no shoulder issues.. no back issues.. all is good.

today is leg day, with a follow up 5 or some miles.. depends on how my legs feel.. although i only do pump sets... nothing heavy.
like sets of 20 with 135 barbell squat.... sets of 100 on the leg press.. 1-2 plates each side.

point is i dont feel tired or worn out when running trest.

 

[FK86]

I always take nine days off every six weeks. It's usually in the middle of the fifth week that thoughts of a break are in my head, which tells me that mentally and physically I'm starting to burn out. I'm taking twelve days off starting tomorrow because I'm extra beat up due to low calories. I learned about the importance of time off way back in the Max-OT days.

 

[buck]

Traditionally i took a deload every time i got so injured i couldn't push myself like i wanted. But i kept the deload shorter then i should have. Having a couple lock downs in the last year caused a deload due to outside forces. Some aches and pains i had for decades mostly went away. I am trying to keep that mentality and take time off. We will see how well that works.

 

[N.L....M.....]

Traditionally i took a deload every time i got so injured i couldn't push myself like i wanted. But i kept the deload shorter then i should have. Having a couple lock downs in the last year caused a deload due to outside forces. Some aches and pains i had for decades mostly went away. I am trying to keep that mentality and take time off. We will see how well that works.

That happened to me. Our gyms were closed for about a month and I didn’t do anything. When I went back I was stronger and most of my aches and pains had subsided

 

[Type-IIx]

I like to deload. Planning them into my training works for me. Lab coat pencilneck shit - some recent research looked at molecular changes in deloading vs. pasive rest and showed deloading has a slight positive effect on MHC content vs passive rest, which is good for strength, and I train for strength more than BB goals right now. It was minor but might add up over long timeframes. If I was doing a bro split or PPL and just adding volume over time, I would not give a shit and just take some time off, cut volume by feel for a week.

 

[qbkilla]

I'll usually do something like this ..bro split ... deload...bro split.... deload...then change frequency do full body 3x a week for a couple meso cycles or pplppl. Keep it fresh. During the first week back keep volume low then ramp it up until the deload.

 

[machomadness22]

Traditionally i took a deload every time i got so injured i couldn't push myself like i wanted. But i kept the deload shorter then i should have. Having a couple lock downs in the last year caused a deload due to outside forces. Some aches and pains i had for decades mostly went away. I am trying to keep that mentality and take time off. We will see how well that works.

Do you adjust your calories during a deload?

 

[buck]

Do you adjust your calories during a deload?

I don't plan for lower calories, as i still stay pretty active and don't sit around doing nothing.

 

[Dugbet]

Do you adjust your calories during a deload?

You are recovering, you need nutrients, I see no need to reduce calories in general during a 7-10 day of deload period. Do some cardio, obviously cut out your intra-workout drinks and all that if you're not lifting hard and you're just going to do some light weight movements.

 

[supermofo]

I respond best to high intensity low volume training and always have. I'm 47 with lots of injuries that I work around and currently train EOD with each body part getting trained once every 8 days (week body parts twice, kind of...) with 3-4 exercises per body part with the exception of traps and calves which only get 1 exercise but 3 hard rest pause sets with partials and Back gets 5 exercises total. Not including warm up sets, everything is trained 1 set to failure or beyond using rest pause, partials, forced reps, static holds, or a few negatives. I cycle the failure and beyond failure methods each week depending on how I feel and take a week off once my body lets me know it's time. I've being going hard training for over 30 years, so I know when I need a break before the training breaks me (lessons learned)... My week off makes me feel better and my body actually looks a bit better (fuller) that week and I'm mentally ready to get back to training hard after that week off. My current training schedule is split like so:

Mon- Shoulders, Triceps, and (1 set to failure upper pecs)
Tues- off
Wed- Calves, Back and Traps
Thurs- off
Fri- Chest and Biceps
Sat-off
Sun- Calves, Hamstrings, and Quads
Mon- off
Then repeat...

I do core training ALMOST everyday and a 30 minute walk at regular speed once per day with 10-15 minute brisk walks after some of my meals. My lower back is so F'd up and my hips hurt so bad sometimes that I use my stationary bike instead of walking. I no longer run anymore because it hurts my hips and back too much. When I was rolling in jiu-jitsu 3 x week I didn't do as many walks but still did some and my weight training was only 3 x week. Doing that, I required a week off about every 4-6 weeks. I'm currently out of bjj so my weight training was adjusted... When I competed in powerlifting, I always took the week off before every competition and sometimes the week after also. It worked really well for me. I competed at 242lbs in single ply gear and my best competition lifts were 685 deadlift, 750 Squat, and 650 bench press. They were even heavier in the gym with no judges... I never used more than 750mgs per week and for no longer than 12 weeks with 8-12 weeks completely off or 100 mgs test per week to cruise, with the exception of once, I tried 1 gram of test and felt horrible. Only TRT for the last 12-15 yrs. So training with the "super supplements" maybe required me to need time off more often than training natural or on TRT, for me anyway... Damn, my answer got long! lol

 

[Gunsmith]

I take a day of every 4-6 days depending how I feel. I'm generally out of town for 4-5 days once a month so I take those days off completely as rest days rather than look for a gym on the road.

 

[TheOtherOne55]

Taking my first deload in maybe 2 years.
Not my choice — vacation in Central America lol

I bet ill come back 10lbs lighter and ready to attack the gym.

 

[pesty4077]

Taking my first deload in maybe 2 years.
Not my choice — vacation in Central America lol

I bet ill come back 10lbs lighter and ready to attack the gym.

When I am vacation, I don't even think of the gym or diet.

 

[Dens228]

My deloads are generally when I go away on vacation or have several days of something in particular that will leave me running on fumes.
I just got back from a vacation in the north woods of Wisconsin and after six days of nothing but eating and fishing I've absolutely killed the weights the last two days.

 

[Bigboomer5150]

As I’m getting older I notice my body responds really well to eod big pumps, better numbers lifts etc, but being flat is repulsive lol it is nice having that perpetual pump year round, but my shoulders have taken a beating over the years especially the younger years of ego lifting and bad form. Coming off a cycle now of test and masteron and tren e, I added in igf1-lr3 for the last 4 weeks and I’m going to miss this compound fullness is unreal but i had some bloat in beginning but figured it out I think I was spilling over… but yes eod at 42 works well for me