Thoughts?

LuckyLeprechaun

I did the 12 week program last summer/fall and finished it in the last week of September.

I haven't gone to the gym since. (I know, I know.)

I want to begin lifting again, and I assume I'm still stronger than I was before I started it, so I don't want to begin again with empty bars....but I don't know how to figure out how much to use to start again on each of the exercises.

This sounds like a stupid question to me when I read it back, but I trust you all will be kind.

tameko2

do you remember what you finished up at? numbers wise? Or any vague idea? I'd take a small drop from there, maybe 20% and then work back up.

LuckyLeprechaun

Oh of course!

I finished at:

squats: 160
OHP 85
deadlift 200
bench press 80
barbell row 95

tameko2

I posted on your profile but I'll post here so other people can read it -

when we took a long break, I actually found it worked best to do 1 day that was VERY light, and then a second day where I jumped up quite a bit, and then work my way back up. So I think at the time for me I'd last done 155, so I did 115 as a light amount (plus easy to rack those plates) for the first day back, and kind of got everything stretched and warmed up and then the next workout day I jumped up to something like 125, then 135, then based on how I felt at 135 I decided to work my way back up from there in 5lb increments.

I didn't do drops that big on the bench press and rows, but I did moderate drops on the OHP and deadlift as well. Squats were the biggest drop because I think those take hte longest for your body to get accustomed to (for me, anyway)