Avoiding DOMS after a two week break

[John Hanley]

Wait, we can actually follow something we know works, and not come up with some sort of convoluted nonsense that leads to getting hurt and further backward progress and wasted time?

But serious, I need someone to hit me with a 2x4 that says this about once every three months.

My left knee sometimes still hurts from the injury I sustained 2+ years ago when I pushed the intensity coming back from a layoff after the birth of my first son.


It's my 2x4.

[Tennisgolfboll]

I like the intensity approach for a short layoff.

Like you say 1 set with higher weight gives me less DOMS then a lower 5x5 or 3x5


For a longer layoff a light start with 3x5 sounds good

[Toasterleavings]

Fine, but I'm still going to push the prowler.

Though my super tight adductor might disagree with my decision...

Adductor DOMS! What is it about these guys? Started back after a month of having the plague or some shit and it felt like I'd spent my entire first session doing nothing but 8 straight hours of heavy eccentrics on the so-called 'good girl/bad girl machine'. A centenarian recovering from a double hip replacement would have looked comparatively spritely getting in and out of a chair. That was with approx 20% deload on squats. They come round relatively quickly though - 3rd session of squats I'm back to within 10% and the howl has become a whimper. And weird how doms symptoms can start to disappear mid-session.

[sbhikes]

I just had a whole week off (5 days and two weekends). I did sets of 3 squats on Monday with a 10lb deload over what it would have been. Wednesday (today) I could still barely walk. I hate adductor DOMS. They are evil. I think I can squat and deadlift on Thursday.

[Meshuggah]

You have to embrace the pain.

[Skander]

I have developed sort of a protocol for when I've had more than 1 week off but less than 3 (don't think I've had such a long break). Day 1 is just about moving, try to keep intensity and volume down. Day 2 is high intensity, low volume (singles around 80-90%, but only 1-2 and warmup reps with singles), day 3 is more volume, so I do 3x5 at maybe 75%. Day 4 is back to your regularly scheduled program maybe 5-10% lower than normal. Having just done this, I had almost no DOMS after a two week break, which was preceded by a week of 1RM testing, so not much volume.

I am an oly lifter, so I also do lighter snatches and c&j in there, which works great for getting the body moving and getting the DOMS out, increasing the intensity throughout- I think I went as high as 92% on the clean and jerk the last day 3 I did, and I wasn't very sore the next day.

For context, I'm 32 and married without kids, so YMMV.

[bntbnr]

More than 24h have passed. Moderate adductor DOMS. The rest of my body feels like it should after a good workout. Good result so far.

Will be interesting to see what happens after my next workout when I switch back to sets of five. This time, I'll deload 10% to compare it to last time. I'll post again then.

Skander, this is very similar to yours because I had a nice "light workout" when a friend moved last weekend. The boxes were heavy, but certainly not "barbell-heavy". Lots of furniture that was pushed and pulled.

The next time, I'll follow John's approach and deload more. After that, I'll stick to what worked best for me.

[Dunk]

I don't know. Probably a few 20-30 pound jumps. You could do 3x/week, vanilla LP. I'm going to do something like
Week 1
Day 1:
Back Squat: 3x5
Light Pull
Day 2:
front squat 5x3
Medium pull
Day 3:
BS: 3x5
Light Pull

Week 2:
Day 1:
FS: 5x3
Medium-light pull
Day 2:
BS: 3x5
No pull
Day 3:
FS: 5x3
Heavy Pull

I really like pulling frequently, so lots of lower-stress front squats in the mix

Hey hanley, what sort of volume do you program for the deadlift variations? I'm guessing around 2-3x5. Also, any preference to what exercises are used in these slots? Deficits, SLDL and SGDL? Just pick one for the day and not worry about it?
Thanks man

[John Hanley]

Hey hanley, what sort of volume do you program for the deadlift variations? I'm guessing around 2-3x5. Also, any preference to what exercises are used in these slots? Deficits, SLDL and SGDL? Just pick one for the day and not worry about it?
Thanks man

I just insert my favorite pulls. So, for my template above:

Wk 1:
Day 1: snatch grip rdl (8s for 3-4sets)
Day 2: snatch grip dead (5s for 3-4)
Day 3: snatch (2s for ~5 sets)

Wk 2:
Day 1: rdl (8s for 3-4sets)
Day 2: off
Day 3: dl (heavy set of 5 for a while).

Something like that