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

[Beltshumeltz]

In your experience, how fast do you lose and then regain old gains when you don't train for a while due to injury?

Say you've gone from squatting 160 to 260. You stop for 3 weeks. Or even 5. Do you basically lose nearly everything in that time?

And do you believe the claim of a muscle memory effect, in that even if you lose gains, you can regain them faster the second time around?

I guess gains are lost faster the more advanced you are, so this question is mostly for someone at my semi-novice level.

[OITW]

This very specific question was discussed thoroughly about two years ago on the old forum, so you should be able to pull it up using the search function.

Rip's guidance in SS is that if you miss up to 5-6 workouts, that is, about two weeks on the regular SS plan, that you suck it up and force yourself to continue at the weight you left off at. It will hurt, but he knows it can be done. Believe it. Longer layoff than that, back off 10% and reset.

Diet matters, too. If the layoff is connected to "cutting" and reduced dietary intake, you will lose more strength. If you take three weeks off to work haying season, you're not going to lose much in the way of strength. If you take three weeks off to play with your Wii, or to run 5 miles a day, you'll lose more strength. How much varies.

[gzt]

You do regain strength faster and easier than you initially gained it. Part of the equation is how long you were at that level of strength. If you've been maintaining a 400 squat for a while and take a break for a month, that's different from somebody who was on SS for 4 months and then hit 400 for a PR single and took a month off.

I though the consensus was that you start taking weight off after more than a week off.

[MazdaMatt]

I can certainly tell you this... I lose much less strength on a layoff now that I'm strength training compared to when I was doing high rep muscle-pump crap.

[OITW]

Before this goes any further, Beltu, have you read the book? This is all in SSSE. The answer to each of your questions is in there.

[MazdaMatt]

He's asking for experiences from the board members, not a quote from the book.

[OITW]

Yeah, but I'm always suspicious. If he's looking for practical application, such as what do I do when, it's in the book, as well as the answer to "muscle memory." If he's just looking to collect and compare experiences, or for reassurance he won't lose everything with his upcoming beach diet, then ask away, but he should at least say why he's asking. Everyone's mileage varies, but the longer you've been at this the less you lose, hence the term thrown about here, "old man strength." Thoroughly discussed here before.

[ColoWayno]

In your experience, how fast do you lose and then regain old gains when you don't train for a while due to injury?

Say you've gone from squatting 160 to 260. You stop for 3 weeks. Or even 5. Do you basically lose nearly everything in that time?

And do you believe the claim of a muscle memory effect, in that even if you lose gains, you can regain them faster the second time around?

I guess gains are lost faster the more advanced you are, so this question is mostly for someone at my semi-novice level.

In changing to a lower volume program my legs lost strength really fast. I'd say I lost 30 lbs from my squat 1RM (about 340 to about 310) in 4 weeks of lower volume (squatting once per week). There may have been other factors involved like a minor illness and minor weight loss. I also cut back on milk consumption during this time. I imagine a layoff would be quite a bit worse.

[Beltshumeltz]

Yeah, but I'm always suspicious. If he's looking for practical application, such as what do I do when, it's in the book, as well as the answer to "muscle memory." If he's just looking to collect and compare experiences, or for reassurance he won't lose everything with his upcoming beach diet, then ask away, but he should at least say why he's asking. Everyone's mileage varies, but the longer you've been at this the less you lose, hence the term thrown about here, "old man strength." Thoroughly discussed here before.

Your question was fair, but as MazdaMatt, I was indeed looking for personal experiences.

I read the book and I know it says something along the lines of what you quoted, ie. miss 4 workouts, do your old weight and then keep raising. Or something like that. I only read it once so far. I'm used to PDF books that let you search for stuff fast but I'm not very good with paper books

I have 2 reasons for asking:
1- I have a 10-12 days trip coming up soon
This along doesn't worry me, I know I can maintain strength in that time frame.

But especially:
2- I got one of them rib/intercostal cartilage injury caused by a belt from squatting and I'm trying to figure out my options. I'm training upper body only now but if it aggravates things, I will have to stop training completely till it heals. And right now, I've stopped squatting for 4 workouts due to this injury, and missed 2 deadlifts as well.

[MazdaMatt]

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.