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Dave Liepmann
Dave Liepmann
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Deload

Deload. Significantly. 10% at a minimum, more likely 20% for such a significant break.

I tried to start back where I had left off after a one-week break, and it messed up my progress significantly in the short and long term.

Think of it this way: say you started with a 1RM of 155135, and squatted, say, 95 for 5x595x5x5. By squatting increasingly heavy weights you improved your 1RM to 250170, and are squatting 210 5x5 or 3x5140x5x5. It's hard, but not at your limit. It probably isn't even your 5x5 limit. If someone held a gun to your head, you could probably make that last workout fiveten pounds heavier. You keep a little bit up your sleeve so that you can keep adding weight to the bar every workout for several months.

After two weeks, in the best case your 1RM will drop to something like 225150. Doing sets of 5 across at 210135 or 215140 might be possible, but it will be a dramatically different experience. Your form will suffer and you might hurt yourself. Worse, you'll then try to increase the weight five pounds in the next workout, whereas you've only improved your 1RM by two or three pounds. By working too close to your 1RM, you've shortened the amount of time you can keep linearly adding weight.

It's much better to deload to, say, 195115 or 120. Give your body the opportunity to restart the progression and you'll decrease your chance of getting hurt, and it will turn out better in the long run.

Deload

Deload. Significantly. 10% at a minimum, more likely 20% for such a significant break.

I tried to start back where I had left off after a one-week break, and it messed up my progress significantly in the short and long term.

Think of it this way: say you started with a 1RM of 155, and squatted, say, 95 for 5x5. By squatting increasingly heavy weights you improved your 1RM to 250, and are squatting 210 5x5 or 3x5. It's hard, but not at your limit. It probably isn't even your 5x5 limit. If someone held a gun to your head, you could probably make that last workout five pounds heavier. You keep a little bit up your sleeve so that you can keep adding weight to the bar every workout for several months.

After two weeks, in the best case your 1RM will drop to something like 225. Doing sets of 5 across at 210 or 215 might be possible, but it will be a dramatically different experience. Your form will suffer and you might hurt yourself. Worse, you'll then try to increase the weight five pounds in the next workout, whereas you've only improved your 1RM by two or three pounds. By working too close to your 1RM, you've shortened the amount of time you can keep linearly adding weight.

It's much better to deload to, say, 195. Give your body the opportunity to restart the progression and you'll decrease your chance of getting hurt, and it will turn out better in the long run.

Deload

Deload. Significantly. 10% at a minimum, more likely 20% for such a significant break.

I tried to start back where I had left off after a one-week break, and it messed up my progress significantly in the short and long term.

Think of it this way: say you started with a 1RM of 135, and squatted, say, 95x5x5. By squatting increasingly heavy weights you improved your 1RM to 170, and are squatting 140x5x5. It's hard, but not at your limit. It probably isn't even your 5x5 limit. If someone held a gun to your head, you could probably make that last workout ten pounds heavier. You keep a little bit up your sleeve so that you can keep adding weight to the bar every workout for several months.

After two weeks, in the best case your 1RM will drop to something like 150. Doing sets of 5 across at 135 or 140 might be possible, but it will be a dramatically different experience. Your form will suffer and you might hurt yourself. Worse, you'll then try to increase the weight five pounds in the next workout, whereas you've only improved your 1RM by two or three pounds. By working too close to your 1RM, you've shortened the amount of time you can keep linearly adding weight.

It's much better to deload to, say, 115 or 120. Give your body the opportunity to restart the progression and you'll decrease your chance of getting hurt, and it will turn out better in the long run.

Source Link
Dave Liepmann
Dave Liepmann
  • 25.3k
  • 5
  • 80
  • 183

Deload

Deload. Significantly. 10% at a minimum, more likely 20% for such a significant break.

I tried to start back where I had left off after a one-week break, and it messed up my progress significantly in the short and long term.

Think of it this way: say you started with a 1RM of 155, and squatted, say, 95 for 5x5. By squatting increasingly heavy weights you improved your 1RM to 250, and are squatting 210 5x5 or 3x5. It's hard, but not at your limit. It probably isn't even your 5x5 limit. If someone held a gun to your head, you could probably make that last workout five pounds heavier. You keep a little bit up your sleeve so that you can keep adding weight to the bar every workout for several months.

After two weeks, in the best case your 1RM will drop to something like 225. Doing sets of 5 across at 210 or 215 might be possible, but it will be a dramatically different experience. Your form will suffer and you might hurt yourself. Worse, you'll then try to increase the weight five pounds in the next workout, whereas you've only improved your 1RM by two or three pounds. By working too close to your 1RM, you've shortened the amount of time you can keep linearly adding weight.

It's much better to deload to, say, 195. Give your body the opportunity to restart the progression and you'll decrease your chance of getting hurt, and it will turn out better in the long run.