First a couple of points to consider:
- 6-8 weeks is not long enough to lose all of your strength
- It is long enough to lose a little of your strength
- You will be sore the first week back doing Stronglifts.
The answer will essentially be the same as the question you pointed to, it's just a matter of degree. Nothing is more demoralizing than trying to work with weights you've used before, but now you are struggling with them. You'll want to deload to the point where the weight feels easy.
A recommended starting point is to put your maximum deload numbers as 20% lower than when you left off. Then take a day to test where the bar starts to feel heavy for your 5 rep sets. If it feels easy all the way up to the 20% deload number then stop there.
As an example, let's say your ending numbers were something like this:
- Squat: 225 lb -> 20% -> 180 lb max deload weight
- Bench: 155 lb -> 20% -> 125 lb max delaod weight
- Deadlift: 305 lb -> 20% -> 245 lb max deload weight
- Overhead Press: 95 lbs -> 20% -> 75 lb max deload weight
Those would be reasonable starting with just the bar and working up. Since Stronglifts is all about 5 rep sets, we care about what you can do for 5 reps. And because you will be doing multiple sets at 5 reps we are going to be very conservative. When you do your testing, it will always be 5 rep sets, and you will stop when the bar starts to feel heavy. Then use the weight on the set before that as your starting weight.
Using the squat as an example, lower body strength is very resiliant. Do your testing like this:
- bar x5 -- should be easy, but ingrain the movement again.
- 105 x5
- 120 x5
- 135 x5
- 160 x5
- 180 x5
If you still felt really strong after 180, just stop and use that for now.
Using the bench as the next example, upper body strength is something most beginners have to fight for. Do your testing like this:
- bar x5 -- should be easy
- 85 x5
- 110 x5
- 125 x5
- 140 x5
- 155 x5 -- starts feeling heavy here
In this case you would use 140 to start with.
This way you can start your training without fearing that you are going to miss reps right away. You'll quickly regain the strength you left off at, and have to work at building new strength. Or you can do the draconian method and just start with 50% of where you left off which is something Mehdi might advocate.
