The pains of taking time off from the gym

[BrianDML]

For the past couple days I've been noticing slight pain in my knee. I kept stretching it out and yesterday's workout was not too bad. Today was squat day. Started doing my squats and noticed the pain again.

I've decided to take a week or two off from the gym. It pains me to do it because I have just started to make solid gains towards my goals. In the long run however, I know it will serve me well. I am only 19, I have a long life of intense weight lifting ahead of me.

Now for a question, what do you guys do whirl you are off from training in order to try and keep your gains?

 

[OnionKnight]

when im sick, its my goal to gain weight, so i eat a **** ton. when im injured, i just eat enough to maintain my weight till im back. pretty much all you could do

 

[ZiR RED]

I love my time off. I accomplish much more non-training related tasks when I'm on an off or reduced frequency week. Eat well, focus on mobility (check out my two mobility threads in exercise science forum) and relax.

 

[Rodja]

I haven't taken a week off in well over a year. If I have something ailing, I first address the problem and then train around it until I'm done with the treatment. For example, if I hurt my knee and it hurts to squat, I focus more on good mornings and deadlifts.

 

[BrianDML]

Appreciate all the advice.


ZiR RED I watched both stretch videos. I think I will use the squat and deadlift one to gauge how my knee is feeling. I just tried it and felt slight pain once I squared down to parallel, but I will try once a day

 

[ZiR RED]

Good deal Brian, I have been constantly adding video's to those threads. There should be about 10-12 videos dispersed in each.

Rodja, I try to schedule my training and weeks off or reduced frequency/volume around travel for work, school, holidays, etc. Sometimes I peak right before it, sometimes I peak too soon. The latter is the worst.

 

[napalm]

I haven't taken a week off in well over a year. If I have something ailing, I first address the problem and then train around it until I'm done with the treatment. For example, if I hurt my knee and it hurts to squat, I focus more on good mornings and deadlifts.

this, i've got a bit of a hammy on the left and haven't deadlifted in a month. it doesn't hurt to squat or gm's, so squats are my main movement on monday, and gm on friday instead of dl.

just working around it...

 

[chedapalooza]

I am 24. From 16-23 I didn't schedule any off time or miss mire than 2 days straight for ANYTHING. it was TOO MUCH. I have learned a lot about myself over years and I have recently implemented 3-4 weeks off from gym completely and 3-4 deload/reduced intensity and frequency weeks per year. I have more energy, I'm the leanest, strongest, biggest, I've ever been and making progress at such an accelerated rate after adding these planned layoffs. I too plan then aroun important school or family events/vacations, etc. Anythin I know is going to require me to dedicate more to IT than the gym, I try to place a reduced or off week there. While I am off I maintain most supplementation for that time and just eat for recovery bc I MAKE SURE I go super intense the week prior to my off weeks.

 

[BrianDML]

What supplementation do you suggest I maintain.

I will 100% maintain taking my multivitamin and my fish oil, but what about my creatine and protein shake? I'm not too sure about the creatine, but I may have protein shakes just to keep my calorie intake up

 

[Rodja]

Good deal Brian, I have been constantly adding video's to those threads. There should be about 10-12 videos dispersed in each.

Rodja, I try to schedule my training and weeks off or reduced frequency/volume around travel for work, school, holidays, etc. Sometimes I peak right before it, sometimes I peak too soon. The latter is the worst.

I've been lucky to have a pretty consistent schedule for awhile now, but the last year of grad school was very inconsistent training for me.

 

[chedapalooza]

What supplementation do you suggest I maintain.

I will 100% maintain taking my multivitamin and my fish oil, but what about my creatine and protein shake? I'm not too sure about the creatine, but I may have protein shakes just to keep my calorie intake up

Yea, you can keep all that, depending on type of creatine you use, u may want to reduce the dose

 

[boogyman]

I lost 3 weeks around christmas due to illness. Sucked because the Forerunner cycle I was starting was just beginning to kick in. I had to abandon it and start PCT before I got even halfway through it. Lost 9 lbs while I hoped to be bulking. Anyhow, Here it is a month later, gained most of that weight back, and strength is right back where it was. So lost time, assuming its not an extremely long length of time, can be made up rather quickly. I choose not to stress about it, but instead take the time needed to get better and accept it as a challenge to get back to where I was as quickly as possible.

 

[rob112]

Maybe just deload, condition work, flexibility stuff. If I can't squat heavy I'll do something productive still...kinda like a rehab type thing.

Active recovery unless I'm ill really, or if something big is happening like when my daughter was born.

Sent from my iPhone using Am.com

 

[BrianDML]

I've decided that I am still going to go to the gym this week. I've rested up the last two days and have realized that my legs can take a week off. They are an area of my body which has seen vast improvement, so I will happily rest them for a week.

So for my workouts this week, I am going to focus on my upper body. I will target chest, back, shoulders, and arms, plus add in abs every other day. I will only do sitting down exercise to rest my legs, and end each workout with a knee focused stretching session

 

[thessbros]

I felt your pain, was so sick for the past two weeks. Couldn't train. Get to hit it hard tomorrow. Lets get this brother!