How fast do you lose gains, how fast do you win them back?

[Patrick L.]

With the intercostal, from my experience just leave it alone completely. The slow healing will ruin your progress worse than the time off. Work out in ways that you can work out without aggrivating it. I went for WEEKS without progress because I kept trying to "work through" it. You won't lose much strength in the time it takes to just let it heal.

This is a great piece of advice...sometimes it is tough to just take a few days off and let it heal. It seems like everyone wants to (and are told to) push through an injury...every time. Thanks, Matt

[Gwyn Brookes]

I had a three month layoff from January to March. I'd been lifting for about a year prior to that, first SS then TM. As a 5'9" female weighing 160 lbs I had progressed to the following for reps: Squat: 160 Bench: 107 Press: 80 Deadlift: 228 Power Clean: 106. When I started again I started as if I was starting from the beginning fresh, with the following numbers - Squat: 120 Bench: 92 Press: 67 Deadlift: 190 Power Clean: 85. During the next two months I had to progress less quickly on my upper body lifts due to some arm tendinitis, but my squat blew by my previous best by 25 pounds, all on linear progression for a PR of 185 for reps. I got back to the same deadlift. I got my power clean up to 110. This was all done along with all my other training (martial arts). Also, I'm 40. In the long run, the three month layoff was negligible.

[Beltshumeltz]

I had a three month layoff from January to March.

Thanks a lot Gwynn. Your post-layoff numbers are actually pretty good too. Did you do martial arts during your layoff? Because your numbers after 3 months off still seem way above that of a complete novice. So this is a good thing!

Oh, and your post-layoff press was the same as my novice press (70 pounds, and I'm 5'8" 180 and considered myself "strong" when I didn't train)