Picking back up after a layoff

[jfriley]

Greetings. Having finished SS and the BBRx, I was able to make decent gains on my squats, hitting a rep PR of 310 x 5. I'm now one week into what will be a 3 week hiatus (vacation). I was running the advanced novice program and was VERY close to transitioning to an intermediate program when I stopped. Previously, I would have used this as an opportunity to program jump. I now realize that has been my biggest enemy for progress for pretty much my entire adult lifting life.

My assumption is I need to stick with the advanced novice program, while scaling the weight back as I've most likely retrained a bit. Any advice how far back I need to pull my numbers? I don't recall the books addressing layoffs, but I know I'm not the first to have this issue.

(For reference I hit squats at 310 x5, DL 355 x 5, BP 220 x 5, and SP was 155 x 5)

Thanks

[Tim Reese]

I'm no expert but if I'm understanding everything I'm reading you probably want to look at about a 10% deload for a new starting point. You'll obviously want to gauge how you feel going down to those levels. If it feels to heavy for you maybe drop it another 5%? I'd be interested to know this as well as I will be going on Vacation in September.

[Expat]

You don't say how old you are or how long you were making linear progress.

Since this is the Geezer forum, I'll go out on a limb and advocate for a big drop, but with the expectation of large jumps and fast progress. If I were going to lay off for three weeks, I'd drop my squat by 15 or 20 percent, say to 250 or 260. Then your first workout after the layoff should feel easy and shouldn't generate a lot of soreness. Given that it will be an easy workout, you might also partially drop back from Advanced Novice to Novice and skip the "light" day and do a heavy squat only two days later. If the weight the first day felt really light, you might jump by ten pounds. If everything goes well, you might add back 30 pounds of your 60 pound drop in the first week. As you approach your old PRs, you'd probably switch back to advanced novice and smaller jumps, but might be back to where you were in as little as two or three weeks.

Personally, I'd err on the side of caution and be happy to take fewer and smaller jumps if necessary. If you do it really slowly and stick with advanced novice programming and only add 10 pounds per week, you'd still be back to where you were in six weeks. Would that be optimal? Almost certainly not. But I'm in my 50s now and it takes me longer to recover from injuries than it used to. For me, an injury is likely to slow down my progress more than suboptimal programming.

[pkelly54]

I find I get a noticeable case of DOMS after a three week layoff. I suggest you consider the first workout back as acclimating to the lifts again. Therefore, if you do a small back off, drop your volume. Consider a 5% drop with 1 or 2 sets of 5. The next work out could then be 2 or 3 sets of 5. Then increase per your normal progression plan. Keep the intensity cut back on the volume.

[John Watson]

I got my squat to around 310.
After multi weeks layoff I've done Novice again 3x a week;

Mon 135
Wed 185
Fri 225

Mon250
Wed 275 only got 1x5

Then work it back up from there with Intermediate programming. I started light at 135 to avoid DOMS, and did half plate jumps, bigger jumps might have worked too. Do your best and log it for reference for your next layoff.
(54 y.o.)

[jfriley]

You don't say how old you are or how long you were making linear progress.

Since this is the Geezer forum, I'll go out on a limb and advocate for a big drop, but with the expectation of large jumps and fast progress. If I were going to lay off for three weeks, I'd drop my squat by 15 or 20 percent, say to 250 or 260. Then your first workout after the layoff should feel easy and shouldn't generate a lot of soreness.

Ah, sry. I'm 44, knocking on the door to 45. I'd been making progress for several months prior. Each time I've run a SS type program I've always gotten stuck around the same #s (high 200s). This last cycle is the first time I've ever gotten my 5RM past 300.

Everything you wrote makes a lot of sense though, I will definitely be looking to put it into practice. It seems like it's hard to get into an actual intermediate program. Seems like life is always going to get in the way and grab a week here, two weeks there.

[Expat]

I've done the novice program several times as well without ever making the jump to intermediate. This time I'm definitely going to pull the trigger.

[Charlie Davies]

I've done the novice program several times as well without ever making the jump to intermediate. This time I'm definitely going to pull the trigger.

What works for me is to transition SS -> (HLM or HL-spit), one lift at a time as they stall.

The "advanced novice" program is close to being SS for presses + HLM for squat/DL already.

I am most successful if I make small changes every 2-3 weeks rather than changing everything at once, too.