Offload Programming

[mlentzner]

Rip,

I have increased my eating by 500 kcal and started sleeping more. Those measures helped, but I am still hitting a wall every 4-5 weeks on TM. My bodyweight is good for my height (70"-205#). I have come to the conclusion that being 40 sucks.

I wanted to try planning for an offload week after three work weeks to try and nip this problem in the bud. Training until the wheels fall off is very inefficient when it comes time to put the wheels back on. A three weeks on, one off would still give me 75% of the progress that a regular TM program does.

Ideally, I'd like to be able to pick up where I left off when I start the last week. For example, if I was doing my squats for 250x5x5 volume and 285x5x1 intensity, I'd like to be able to go 255x5x5 and 290x5x1 the week following the offload.

I came up with this offload program just as a starting point.

Mon: squat 80% of 5RM x 5 x 3
Wed: squat 70% of 5RM x 5 x 2
Fri: squat 90% of 5RM x 5 x 1

I guess the question is: What is the minimum I can do for the week without losing any strength?

[Mark Rippetoe]

It depends on how long you've been training. Novices lose it faster than experienced trainees. Try this and see what happens.