Vacation coming

[Greg C]

So, at the end of next week, I am off for a week on vacation. There will be no weights or barbells, so I'll be limited to body weight stuff that I come up with before we leave. I will be gone for 7 days, and expect to lift Thursday before I leave Friday.

As a result, I anticipate missing 3 sessions:

1.BS/BP/GM/Chins
2.BS/DL/SP
3.BS/BP/GM/Pull-up

Although I'll be back the following Friday, I intend to keep my Su/Tu/Th lift schedule on return.

So the question:
Where to pick up from for each lift??? Advice greatly appreciated (I did a search, and scanned some logs, but didn't really find any decent info). Thanks.

Greg

[stronger]

Starting a progression or two back is probably a good idea. Your strength will come back very quickly, so don't worry.

[PVC]

This is in the book. If you miss a few workouts you're supposed to repeat your previous weights.

I took a week-long vacation a few weeks ago, and I found that this worked just fine for everything except for the squat. I'd recommend dropping down by 10 lbs on the squat on your first workout back. Fortunately your squat builds up rather quickly, so this won't be an issue.

[Greg C]

This is in the book. If you miss a few workouts you're supposed to repeat your previous weights.

SS or PPST? I looked through both my copies, and didn't see that. I remember about missing a workout, and just repeating the one you missed, but this was a little longer than that example, so I was looking for some experienced opinions.

Thanks

[cjangelo]

This is just from my experience, and it may not be what Rip or other smarter people think, but FOR ME, I'm ALWAYS better off backing off MORE rather than LESS. A few extra weeks is nothing. In fact, it is sort of a mental break, re-doing weights you know you'll hit without any problem, and then I usually bust through my previous level of strength.

[isis]

I travel a lot, at least a week a month and often to small towns without any kind of useful gym. I've been training around travel for a year and a half now and in general repeating the last workout (or the last week of workouts now that I'm doing the TM) works well after a week when I didn't do any exercise other than hauling a suitcase. However if for whatever reason I lost weight on the trip, even a couple of pounds, a reset is required. The biggest reset I ever did was 5% when I came back from a 2-week trip 5 pounds lighter.

If however I eat enough on the trip and do a few sessions of bodyweight exercises and presses or snatches or something with the dumbbells in the hotel gym, I can often come back and continue adding weight like I didn't miss a workout...and since I'm trying to make progression work around a lot of travel I often try to do this.

Pistol squats are very helpful in preventing the DOMS that otherwise hits when I return to squatting after a layoff. I like dips on chairs and handstand pushups (I do assisted variations with my feet on something) to help maintain the pressing muscles.

[Briks42]

GregC,

Also consider what your diet is going to be like while you are on vacation. Last month I skipped 2 workouts for a vacation to Miami in which I was drinking a lot and not eating well. I didn't touch milk for like 4 or 5 days and lost like 4 pounds over the 5 day vacation (some of this was obviously still hydration, but that matters to your strength too). Obviosuly I knew I was going to be weaker when I got back so I lowered my weights a little bit from my previous workouts.

However, if you are going to be able to still eat well and maintain your bodyweight while on vacation, you may be able to just repeat your work set weight. But as mentioned before, I think moving down a little is probably safer. Youll be back up in no time anyway.

[PVC]

if for whatever reason I lost weight on the trip, even a couple of pounds, a reset is required. The biggest reset I ever did was 5% when I came back from a 2-week trip 5 pounds lighter.

This is a very good point that I forgot to mention. You can come back and just repeat your last workout weight as long as you have continued to gain weight on your vacation. If you've lost weight, or even if your weight has stayed the same, a reset would probably be required.

The reason I needed a reset on the squat but not on the other exercises is because my hamstring flexibility was affected significantly by my vacation. I did almost no physical activity while I was away and I was sitting down most of the time as well, so my hamstrings got tight. Because of this I couldn't just pick up with the same squat weight as I was doing before I left.

[Briks42]

Whoops, sorry for repeating a lot of what Isis said about losing weight. Guess I should have read all the replies before posting.