Break and Rest or Deload and Keep Going?

[Jeffg010]

Maybe I am a genetic freak... I could walk in off the street and move more weight than almost anyone at the gym. Heck, I can go 7 months without stepping foot in a gym and squat 300+ for my workouts. Even in high school, when I was a true novice to lifting I don't remember struggling with weights in the 105 lb range.

To put things into perspective, a lot of people start lifting in high school like I did (mainly end of sophomore begging of junior yr). We did what most here are calling "intermediate" or "advanced" programs. We did bigger faster stronger. Now if we followed this 2 yr novice program like Hate points, a lot of these high school'ers would never move on, at least in their high school days.

I don't know what people's reservations are about getting a little more weight on the bar?

I'm not understanding how you think strong lifts is not going to get the weight up on the bar. The work out calls to up the weight 5 lbs a work out. Even if you did 5 lbs a week for 50 weeks you would add 250 lbs to squats. If you started at the bar 45 you now are doing 295. So you say you can do 400lbs squats how long have you been lifting?

Other factors that you left are are how much do you weigh? How long have you been lifting.

 

[KIAman]

Maybe I am a genetic freak...QUOTE]

Yes, it sounds to me like you are very lucky. I lost 20lbs on the squat from just taking a week off, ugh.

 

[Zivic]

I'm not understanding how you think strong lifts is not going to get the weight up on the bar. The work out calls to up the weight 5 lbs a work out. Even if you did 5 lbs a week for 50 weeks you would add 250 lbs to squats. If you started at the bar 45 you now are doing 295. So you say you can do 400lbs squats how long have you been lifting?

Other factors that you left are are how much do you weigh? How long have you been lifting.

I am 33 yrs old. been lifting since about 16...

Right now I am about 235. (if you are curious as to my build, I can pm you a recent pic I took for a friend mine) I don't lift yr round now due to my work (farmer) so I only lift from about nov till end of march.

Strongest I was was the year before I started farming full time and was lifting yr round. I was just over 220. Obviously I am carrying a few lbs of undesirable weight right now, but that is due to a less than perfect diet I was repping in the 415-430 range for bench. Squats were 475-495 range for reps. (rep range 4-6) Considering my limited training and not being quite as motivated now, I am feeling very good about my current size/strength. I would like to lean out about 10 more lbs, but considering farm season is all but started, I am not going to try to cut any this time of year.

I agree you want to try to make progress every week/workout. problem is, you aren't going to be able routinely go up 5 lbs a week. At the beginning, you might be going 10 lbs or more, but at a certain point, you will be happy with 5 lbs a month on some lifts.

I just got back from the gym today. Bench day.
Last wk's workout:
330x6
340x5
350x4
This week's:
340x6
350x5
360x4

That is a great jump in a weeks time, but do I think it is sustainable week after week, heck no!

What I am getting at, is once you get the lifts down and feel confident in your abilities, you don't want to be squating 3 times a week. This will limit the amount of weight you could be doing and you aren't getting proper rest and recovery if you are lifting heavy

 

[Zivic]

Maybe I am a genetic freak...

Yes, it sounds to me like you are very lucky. I lost 20lbs on the squat from just taking a week off, ugh.

which is normal in some cases... but with a proper routine and proper recovery, a week off should net you gains in the longer run. OK a wk off cost you 20 lbs from one workout to another, but in 2 or 3 wks, you should have more than made up for it. You don't make straight linear progression with your lifts. When people first start out, that time is likely when you see your biggest increases. You cannot extrapolate those initial gains to the long term. It isn't realistic.

 

[Sid59]

As an update ...
I took a weak off from squats but kept inline with my deadlifts, overhead press, and bench press. I did light weight, warmup squats but spent the time i'd be doing squats foam rolling and stretching.

Result: hit 5x5 @ 225. No pain and the clarity of mind helped!

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

I took 2-3 weeks off a month ago and lost 10 pounds on my bench. went from 185x5x5 to 175x5x5. A week off never hurt me in the past though.

I am still a novice ... doing SL. And the SL documentation specifically states that you eventually will go to 3 sets of 5 for workout weight and then 1 set of 5 for workout weight. once you stall on the 1x5s ... it is time for an intermediate program like Madcows. Just read something I forgot. It is when you stop progressing on squats at 1x5 that you move to something like Madcow.

madcow is very similar to SL. Similar 3 days a week plan. But you will do fewer total reps.

Just realized the SL doesn't say anything about warm up sets? Is that accurate?