Gym revelations

[Draugfromthehills]

Or more like Squat revelations.
Last week I was suffering from a really bad flu or something like it. Lost a few pounds of bodyweight and a great deal of ... energy? The thing you have when you go to the gym and just feel POWERFUL...
Anyway, last week on wednesday I got back to the gym after my illness. I felt weak and exhausted from just warming up. And I missed last rep on the last set of squats. The squats felt like bloody murder that day. I was very frustrated afterwards, hehe.
Today, I went to the gym and started as always with squats (same weight as last time when I failed), warm-up and first workset felt heavy and I thought "Damn, I don't want to lower the weight!!". So for the next set I really worked myself up into some kind of focused rage and I went in under the bar really aggressive. I took a deep breath and squated down. I braced myself for the heaviness I knew was coming and pushed off.
The damn bar nearly hit the roof (or is that ceiling?) easiest squat I've ever done. It felt like I had the bar in perfect balance and the rest of the squats was really easy and I felt powered up like the damn energizer bunny. The rest of the session felt fluid and really good.
After the gym I analyzed my squat a bit. I found out that I was leaning forward a little more than I had been doing before. And that I had taken a really deep breath.
I might be a little geeky for writing all this here... but I just felt the urge and couldn't stop.

I have to ask something aswell.
Is taking a week off every 12 weeks a good idea? To eat a lot and really rest the body, to go at it fully powered the week after.
Thanks in advance guys!

[PackMule]

Some people like planned deloads, some don't. It's up to you and your training philosophy.

I only deload when I'm forced to. Either my body will force me to deload with sickness, just feling like complete death every day in the gym (which usually leads to sickness), or real life will get in the way with vacations or whatever.

[yorick]

I pretty much do the delaods when my body tells me to, also. Usually a couple planned vacations a year, a couple times getting sick and being off for a few days, and other times I miss a workout from too much crap going on is enough for me.

My guess is the more advanced a lifter (or programming methodology), the more important planned deloads become. A program like 5/3/1 has them written into the program, and I wouldn't deviate from that if I was doing that program again.

[Draugfromthehills]

Okay, I'll try a "recovery week" in about 5 weeks just to see how it works out for me. I got the idea from a guy at the gym who gained a few pounds more than he had expected when he went on a vacation. It was about 10 weels into his schedule. And Im in this mainly to gain weight... so I'll try pretty much any tip I get.

[Dastardly]

I discovered recently that "hydraulic piston" type breathing (which BBers seem so fond of) actually has great practical purpose when doing high rep squats. Been doing 20 reppers recently and it has become totally intuitive to breathe in this way, and it really helps a lot.

[hugenscrawny]

that kind of "blowing" ie creating resistance to the air coming out and squeezing hard has been shown to increase oxygen in the blood. You'll see fighters do it in the corner sometimes or be told to. Helps with energy replenishment obviously.