Post: #1

I have been lifting for almost 9 years. At first I was skinny fat and I was afraid of eating, considering that my whole adolescence I was fat I was always scared of balooning again so I just wanted to be "toned". Now I am mostly focused in strength and my stats are not bad.

Height: 5'6
Weight: 161 pounds, 13% BF

1RM:
Bench Press: 265
Deadlift: 355
Squat: 330

I workout 4x a week and sometimes every now and then I do some cardio. I love working out and if I do not go the gym my day is not the same, I feel stressed and with less drive and motivation.

This year has been hectic at work (finance) and I am working 12-14 hours daily from monday to friday and some hours on the weekend, I workout at 6am but sometimes I just want to stay in bed and rest a little bit more. My diet is on point, almost 4k calories from good foods. My supplementation too: multivitamin, fish oil, vit C, ZMA, glutamine and protein powder (whey and a blend)

I plan to take some days off from work, 3-4 days to focus on studying (plan to take the GMAT in less than a month and I have not studied that much due to work) and I am considering skipping the gym for a week entirely and just focus on studying.

The problem is that I have this psychological issue that if I miss a workout I am going to lose my muscle/strength, gain fat and everything. I feel the same sometimes when I eat something processed or fried, the only time when I do not feel bad is when I drink with a girl: love steak, wine and scotch.

What is your opinion about taking a week entirely from the gym? Are my concerns common?

Post: #2

How long have you been lifting for. Those are some solid lifts, dawg. I stop lifting for a couple of days whenever I am going to completely change my routine, am working too much and need a day for my body and mind to recover or if I start to get random aches and pains. Sounds like you have your shit together, taking a few days off to study and put my emphasis on your education is smart in my book, especially because you seem to have your diet and other things in order. Sometimes you have to feel it out. Not working out for a few days probably won't kill you; in fact, I feel like I sometimes see better growth from my work outs when I increase the days between work outs.

Post: #3

(03-25-2015 05:34 PM)Gunner Wrote:  I have been lifting for almost 9 years. At first I was skinny fat and I was afraid of eating, considering that my whole adolescence I was fat I was always scared of balooning again so I just wanted to be "toned". Now I am mostly focused in strength and my stats are not bad.

Height: 5'6
Weight: 161 pounds, 13% BF

1RM:
Bench Press: 265
Deadlift: 355
Squat: 330

I workout 4x a week and sometimes every now and then I do some cardio. I love working out and if I do not go the gym my day is not the same, I feel stressed and with less drive and motivation.

This year has been hectic at work (finance) and I am working 12-14 hours daily from monday to friday and some hours on the weekend, I workout at 6am but sometimes I just want to stay in bed and rest a little bit more. My diet is on point, almost 4k calories from good foods. My supplementation too: multivitamin, fish oil, vit C, ZMA, glutamine and protein powder (whey and a blend)

I plan to take some days off from work, 3-4 days to focus on studying (plan to take the GMAT in less than a month and I have not studied that much due to work) and I am considering skipping the gym for a week entirely and just focus on studying.

The problem is that I have this psychological issue that if I miss a workout I am going to lose my muscle/strength, gain fat and everything. I feel the same sometimes when I eat something processed or fried, the only time when I do not feel bad is when I drink with a girl: love steak, wine and scotch.

What is your opinion about taking a week entirely from the gym? Are my concerns common?

You will lose nothing in a week. In all probability you will gain physically, and mentally, from the break, as it sounds like you've been working pretty solidly for a long time without taking a week off.

Post: #4

Some programs have a specific planned deload week where you do nothing or maybe lift some very light weights. The anabolic response to lifting can actually become blunted over time without a break. Likely you will come back, lower the weights slightly for the first few return workouts, but then find out you'll make better gains afterwards.

Post: #5

(03-25-2015 06:18 PM)Fortis Wrote:  How long have you been lifting for. Those are some solid lifts, dawg. I stop lifting for a couple of days whenever I am going to completely change my routine, am working too much and need a day for my body and mind to recover or if I start to get random aches and pains. Sounds like you have your shit together, taking a few days off to study and put my emphasis on your education is smart in my book, especially because you seem to have your diet and other things in order. Sometimes you have to feel it out. Not working out for a few days probably won't kill you; in fact, I feel like I sometimes see better growth from my work outs when I increase the days between work outs.

I second this. For strength training and bulking, taking days off actually improved my lifts and/or weight, especially when I was currently plateauing.

I personally can empathize with your anxiety over falling out of a consistent workout routine. I've also been lifting 4+ days/week for 5+ years. It's logical that breaking from such a long-term habit would make you feel off and mess with your psyche. This might sound obvious but when this started happening to me, I took notice and attacked it. I didn't want my day to be ruined because I missed a workout. You can probably recognize a handful of guys that are victim to this mentality in your gym. They are jacked but have such an effeminate and perfectionist attitude towards their body and workout routines that it controls them. They rarely have exciting social or dating lives. It's strange but some of the most jacked dudes I know are also the least masculine. I'm sure you have things under control, but just be cognizant of your mental state and its' attachment to your workout routine and physique.

By the way solid lifts for you bodyweight. Slightly surprised at how high your bench is comparatively to your squat/deadlift.

Tl;dr: If life gets in the way and you can't schedule a workout, so what. Pump out a couple bodyweight sets, park further away from work and walk in, tighten your diet. Stressing out about falling off a solid routine will do you no good and surprisingly taking breaks, even if longer than necessary often have smaller effects than you'd think.

Post: #6

(03-25-2015 05:34 PM)Gunner Wrote:  I plan to take some days off from work, 3-4 days to focus on studying (plan to take the GMAT in less than a month and I have not studied that much due to work) and I am considering skipping the gym for a week entirely and just focus on studying.

The gym is great and all but you can't forget where your are making your money at. However, I imagine if you are going to be taking off work and doing nothing other than studying I bet you will get the urge to lift or exercise just to blow off some steam.

I'm not saying you can't take a week off. I'm just not sure you will want to.

I have a version of my workout specifically planned for times when I am irregularly busy. I just strip it down to the bare essentials, meaning that I do a few compound lifts quickly and then leave. If you are strapped for time ditch the auxiliary stuff.

Post: #7

Your body will tell you when you need to. The sensitivity to this comes with age.

Post: #8

Props on the lifts you posted, I'm the same height but lift a bit lower than yourself.

As for taking a week, absolutely. You might feel a bit mentally stressed, but it will in no way harm your workouts. If you've been exercising non-stop for a long time, a week off will be beneficial, as others have mentioned above. If you're really worrying about it, there's nothing to stop you doing a home bodyweight workout for 30-60 minutes just to get the blood pumping.

Post: #9

NEVER >

Post: #10

Nothing wrong with taking a week off like others have said. If it helps you physcologically, just bang out some pushups at your house, and superset with some pullups if you have a bar (cheap to get, you should invest in one anyway if you don't already have one). Take maybe 15 minutes, 20 pushups then 10 pullups back to back to back till you can't do any anymore. Then back to studying

A short 10 minute pushup/pullup workout is great anyways if you've been studying for a few hours and need a mental break.

Post: #11

One week's pretty reasonable. Any more than that is detrimental as I found out after going on holiday.
I came back after 2 weeks and found my lifts were much poorer - I couldn't match my own personal best and I was struggling to complete sets.

Post: #12

Also you're better off switching out glutamine for creatine.

If you need to take a week off for work/studying then sip on BCAAs throughout the day. Will prevent your muscles from becoming catabolic an keep you in a fat burning state.

Post: #13

Personally I don't like taking more than 3 days off. Whenever I have a week or more away from the gym, I'm noticeably weaker.

Post: #14

I'd have deload weeks when I lift with less intensity (meaning lighter weights) or less volume (medium weights with fewer sets/reps) but I'd rather not take the week off unless I travel on holidays. Taking the week off makes me weaker and more sore when I come back.

If you're the all-out-or-nothing type, you need to get control on your emotions and energy expenditure, than taking weeks off when you're beating your body into the ground.

Post: #15

I take days/weeks off whenever I feel like it.

After years of exercising, whether weightlifting or sports or whatever, I think you should know your body well enough to know when you need a rest.

I take one week out of 6 approximately off altogether.

If I don't feel like training on any given day, I don't.

Pretty much every time I get injured it's because I am training like a lunatic for some reason or other (never a good reason) and ignore what my body is telling me.

Post: #16

A week off from weights occasionally is excellent for your body. Take this time to go on walks, stretch your body plenty, massage tight muscles, sauna and epsom salt baths, etc.

Post: #17

I went 11 weeks straight before my wrist started hurting. Kept going and then sprained my wrist pretty badly this week. Now I'm sidelined for at least a week or even two. Gotta listen to your body.