Strength training breaks

rainman3k

I have been hearing people talk about having success taking time off from their strength routines. Prior to a change in my routine this week, I was really feeling what I can only describe as muscle fatigue.

I do cardio M-S with Sunday as a total rest day and then for strength training I do:

Monday - plyo
Tuesday - push
Wednesday - plyo
Thursday - pull
Friday - plyo
Saturday - Legs/abs

This has been my schedule for the last 7 weeks and while I have made good gains from week 1 to 7, I am wondering if a week off from the weights is a good thing every X amount of weeks.

What are your opinions on X in my equation?

musclebuilder

restoration cycles are important parts of your overall training cycle..I personally prefer a week of lowered intensity rather than a complete week off from lifting weights..This allows me to pick right up where i left off next training cyle rather than starting off my next cycle having to work back up to where i left off at the end of my previous cycle..And it still allows for restoration,.

But that is me, you may find a week off from lifting works better for you and your goals..You can schedule a recovery week after X amount of weeks of training..But it doesn't have to be written in stone..You may schedule that recovery week at week 10 and find at week 8 or 9 you think its best to head into the recovery week..or you may have one planned for week 8 and find you feel good and can continue training a bit longer..

bizco

Many lifting coaches agree that you should take an occasional week off to give your body a chance to fully recover. And we're talking about more than your muscles:

Connective tissues have a smaller blood supply than your muscles, and take longer to adapt to strenuous exercise. A week away from heavy lifting gives them time to catch up.

Your nervous system gets fatigued along with your muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Sometimes you have bad days in the gym, even though your muscles have had plenty of time to recover. Experts call this "neural fatigue," which is a fancy way of saying the body is willing but the brain has other ideas.

Bones also need time to make adaptations. The strain of heavy lifting causes your body to put down new collagen fibers. Those fibers eventually harden into functional bone tissue. It's a months-long process, so by design the adaptation of your bones to heavy lifting lags behind the recovery of your connective tissues, which itself lags behind the recovery of your muscles. And the recovery of your nervous system is a wild card.

The best insurance that everything recovers and rebuilds itself is to take a week off from time to time.