Can You Take Weight Off The Bar if You Feel Crappy? Highly Useful Info

[Michael Wolf]

I received this question as a follow-up email from a not completely new but relatively inexperienced lifter I worked with for the first time this past weekend. I've found it a fairly common question among newer trainees who can't yet use something more formal like RPE or something less formal like "listen to your body" yet, because they lack the experience to differentiate all the various factors that experienced lifters can do almost unconsciously.

This was my reply. Anyone still on the Novice LP, or first 3-6 months of Intermediate training, I urge you to read:

In general, yes, it is OK to take some weight off the bar if you're feeling especially tired or generally like shit on a given day. But I would note the following two things that I urge you to pay close attention to:

THING 1
Both me and many I've coached have felt like absolute dogshit, but went to the gym, warmed up, got going, and ended up having some of the best workouts of our lives. Or, at least, surprised ourselves by hitting our planned numbers and not taking anything off the bar. So I would urge you to always plan to hit your prescribed numbers, and go to the gym and warm-up with that in mind. If, once you get to work sets, you can't finish three sets of five at the planned weight, then take some weight off the bar.

Part of the process of training and getting stronger is learning your body and limits. After some years of experience, you'll know from your warm-ups whether the above is going to be necessary or not. But right now, you simply lack the experience to know. So plan to go up, and only if you actually can't, take weight off the bar. Don't just assume you have to take weight off unless you're truly sick or really feeling like absolute crap.

THING 2
If you DO have to take weight off the bar, don't just take a few lbs off. Take a bunch off. Having to take weight off the bar is an indication that something is wrong. Either you're sick, underfed, underslept, or something else. But something is definitely wrong. That means you need to RECOVER, and your training that day should facilitate recovery, not be a further stressor that requires yet even more recovery to dig your way out of.

If your planned squat that day was 220x5x3, and you can't make 220 so you do 210 or 215, you're not helping the situation at all. You're doing something so close to the heavy/new PR weights that were planned, that you don't achieve any recovery. But since they're not heavier than you did last time or last week, you're also not getting the benefit of new adaptation (this probably isn't strictly true, but is close enough for your purposes of Novice progression).

So, if you have to take weight off the bar, err on the "take more weight off" side. To some extent you'll also learn to do this by feel as you get more experience under the bar. But at first, as a general guideline, take 15-25% off your squat and DL weight, and 10-20% off bench and press weight. If you're feeling so crappy that you have to take more than that off the weight to lift, as a Novice, you're probably better off resting and not training at all.

[ChrisRozon]

Where were you Friday night??? I was so beat I could barely load the bar, let alone lift it.... should have backed off but pushed through, failed on every lift and felt terrible (mentally and physically) all weekend. Looking back, it was a bad night's sleep, very little food all day, and running after kids all day had me worn out before i even started.

[Michael Wolf]

Where were you Friday night??? I was so beat I could barely load the bar, let alone lift it.... should have backed off but pushed through, failed on every lift and felt terrible (mentally and physically) all weekend. Looking back, it was a bad night's sleep, very little food all day, and running after kids all day had me worn out before i even started.

Some days like that, depending upon individual factors including scheduling flexibility, this can be fixed by just doing the workout the next day instead. But if that'd not an option, see the OP. At least now you know for next time.

[tallison]

This combined with Matt's article on how to handle extended gaps in training need to make it in the next edition of SSBBT. Meantime, is there some place to put them for quick reference? I suppose a short aptly titled article under training on this subject would be helpful. In any event, very useful premium-experience-based info. Thanks!

[Brodie Butland]

Great post, Wolf. And for those reading it, it's absolutely true. I've set all-time PRs on three hours of sleep and a long day of work. I know every SSC and experienced lifter on this forum has experienced the same thing at one point or another.

Don't give in until you know for sure you can't hit it, because you just might surprise yourself.

[Michael Wolf]

This combined with Matt's article on how to handle extended gaps in training need to make it in the next edition of SSBBT. Meantime, is there some place to put them for quick reference? I suppose a short aptly titled article under training on this subject would be helpful. In any event, very useful premium-experience-based info. Thanks!

I don't know exactly where we'd put it but it's an idea.

And in case it wasn't obvious from context, this is primarily applicable to Novices and early Intermediates. And that's really who asks this question. Later Intermediates and Advanced trainees, at least ostensibly, know themselves well enough to auto-regulate, whether in a more formal or informal manner.

[Steve Hill]

I don't know exactly where we'd put it but it's an idea.

And in case it wasn't obvious from context, this is primarily applicable to Novices and early Intermediates. And that's really who asks this question. Later Intermediates and Advanced trainees, at least ostensibly, know themselves well enough to auto-regulate, whether in a more formal or informal manner.

Probably better in PPfST.

[Polishdude20]

Where were you Friday night??? I was so beat I could barely load the bar, let alone lift it.... should have backed off but pushed through, failed on every lift and felt terrible (mentally and physically) all weekend. Looking back, it was a bad night's sleep, very little food all day, and running after kids all day had me worn out before i even started.

Almost the same thing happened to me on Friday. Got all of my squats in despite them being the most difficult I've ever felt them being. Went to do presses just 2.5lbs heavier than my last workout and I couldn't even do a rep. Tried deadlifts 10 lbs heavier than before and couldn't get the bar off the ground. At that point I was exhausted and thought I'd just take a rest for the day. Hopefully today will be better despite my shitty diet and drinking on the weekend

[kanahan]

Great post.

Corollary: if you can't lift what you were supposed to, you might have something nasty. Such as mono, to name a completely random thing totally unrelated to my own experience.

[Nermin]

Thanks, Wolf - very useful. In the instance you go with taking a good chunk of weight off the bar, would you simply move your lifting schedule out by a day or two and repeat the weight, effectively offsetting your schedule via the impromptu recovery day you just inserted?

I'd also add that in my recent experience as I push closer to the edge of the recovery limit with heavy 5s on adv-novice or early intermediate volume, the recovery resources are much scarcer (duh). Such that, even if you have the 'great workout' despite feeling like crap, you are likely in need of greater recovery down the road to offset the accumulating stress & fatigue.

For me, oftentimes this results in being stubborn and plowing ahead with the same work/life stress + heavy weights, but I pay for it on the back end with a cold, minor injury, or a visible steep drop off in performance a few workouts down the road. If you feel you're underrecovered or over-stressed (barbell or life), you should be baking in more recovery, food, sleep, bellyrubs to mitigate the accumulated stress effects.