is it okay to have entire week layoff from workouts to all biomechanical and everything to recover? and is it good for muscles and nervous system CNS

[Mumlaa]

what you think guys? will there be positive change?

 

[Kluso]

If your burned out and overtrained it will.

 

[genetic freak]

Deloads come in many forms. Some can keep the same level of volume and only need to drop intensity. Others need to reduce volume by 30-50%. While some have to completely take a week or two off. Your body does not start the detraining process until around 3 weeks without training, so a week is not going to kill anyone. However, only take them when you need them.

 

[fasttwitch]

what you think guys? will there be positive change?

I have a friend who is a competitive bodybuilder. He takes off to Russia twice a year for one to two weeks each time. While he's there he does not lift. He told me he returns "restored."

It's probably ok if you are normally putting in the work and then occasionally take a week or even two.

 

[jipped genes]

I cannot just do nothing. A week off where I could not do anything more than walk after my eye surgery and no lifting or elevated heart rate for 1 week almost killed me. My body starts to ache and I get real tight even with stretching. Now I come no where near over training though.

When I did train hard I found that still going to the gym and working light weights on technique and form with no hypertrophy in mind did several things.

1 Active recovery, my body responds better to moving than being sedentary.
2 I improved my form
3 Mentally I stayed "with the program"
4 It helped with my ego. I realize doing low reps with light weights i am not in competition to outlift everyone or push harder than my gym mates. this may have been the biggest benefit to where i am now and why I get injured less and never get burned out as I am old and fragile.

 

[Yano]

 

[Bigtex]

My entire lifting career which spans 43 years or more, and with 27 year of competition I have only taken days off when I absolutely had to. I got my best all time results doing a more Conjugate style training where intensity was >90% and exercises were rotated. If you eat properly, train properly and rest adequately there is no need for a deload. If your CNS is burning out, you are doing something wrong with your training, rest and/or diet. If you have to take a week off it is not going to kill you. It can be much harder on cardiovascular training though. When I was a strength coach my athletes also lifted all year round and kept the intensity >90, even through the season. We got stronger as the season instead of weaker. We even trained through all holidays. After the season ended we went through a General Physical Preparation (GPP) phase except for those going straight to powerlifting, but the intensity of the exercise was still very high in order to get the body prepared for the next phase which was off season. Only those who were injured did not participate until they were released by the doctor/trainer.

Gaining more from doing less? The effects of a one-week deload period during supervised resistance training on muscular adaptations​

Gaining more from doing less? The effects of a one-week deload period during supervised resistance training on muscular adaptations

Background Based on emerging evidence that brief periods of cessation from resistance training (RT) may re-sensitize muscle to anabolic stimuli, we aimed to investigate the effects of a 1-week deload interval at the midpoint of a 9-week RT program on muscular adaptations in resistance-trained...

peerj.com

Conclusion​

In conclusion, our findings suggest that a 1-week deload period at the midpoint of a 9-week RT program appears to negatively influence measures of lower body muscle strength but has no effect on lower body hypertrophy, power or local muscular endurance.

So a week off is not going to cause any significant muscle loss but may cause a loss in strength.

Most powerlifters took off a week before a contest from all heavy lifts and two weeks off for deadlift. I never took off a week and treated the contest as just another day in the gym. My second attempt was my last gym max and depending on how I got that I went up 5-10lbs over on the 3rd attempt. Again, with proper rest, and diet the body will adapt. Bulgarian lifters trained .

I remember Dr. Fred Hatfield telling me about how the Bulgarian team trained for a meet. The lifter trains up to a max each day; this could be a true max or it could be the max weight that can be lifted on that day. The lifter then may back off and work back up or drop down for some doubles with sub-maximum weights. This basic workout would be done several times a day in small increments. First would be squats followed by a break, then snatches followed by a break and finally clean and jerks. The afternoon would start with snatches, break, clean and jerks, break, and more squats. A third session later in the evening could be added if more work is needed. When lifters begin the training year, they may only reach 85%-90% of their best, but gradually as the year progresses they begin to lift closer to their true max more often. Also, at the beginning of the year they may only train once a day and then twice a day and then finally during the heaviest periods of training three times a day. As the major competition draws near (i.e. the World Championships) they begin to reduce the amount of training, but continue to lift maximum weights. The total training time during the lighter periods would be approximately 3-4 hours a day and the training time during the heavy periods would be around 6-8 hours a day. This would include the breaks.

I remember asking Dr. Squat if it was truly possible to train heavy year round and up to three times a day. He said of course as long as you have plenty of rest and plenty of food, the body will adjust. Coaches like the late Louie Simmons have been claiming this for years with his Conjugate style training which can be accommodated for almost any style of resistance training.

With cardiovascular training, plasma volume can decrease by around 5% within the first 48 hours of stopping training. VO2 max declines is due to reductions in blood and plasma volumes, which decrease by as much as 12% in the first four weeks after a person stops training. VO2 max falls sharply, back to pre-training levels, in less than eight weeks.

 

[Bigtex]

I agree with this video. Taking time off is not a good idea because you will loose strength. Changing any one of the variables is a much better solution. Reps, modes of exercise, rest periods or intensity....dropping from singles to 2-5 reps. In the Conjugate method we trained deadlifts for instance by doing them off the floor, with bands, our of racks and squats could be competition squats, box squats below parallel, box squats above parallel and we always changed the reps each week, from 1-5. In our training we did a max effort period, a speed training period and dynamic effort period. By constantly changing the exercises done, the total volume done and the intensity each 1-2 weeks you can avoid having to take days off and just sit around doing nothing. As I said, during transitions from the end of competition to off season, I had athletes go through GPP. We did not sit on our ass for two weeks instead we busted out ass to get ready for a long off season.

When using the conjugate method in training athletes and combining max effort, dynamic effort/repetitive effort days you are in essence training the most important elements of strength:

• Starting Strength
• Explosive strength
• Speed strength
• Limit strength

Now many worry that by spending too much time at such heavy weight the CNS system will quickly become fatigued and the athlete will become over trained. However, Louie Simmons found that by switching exercises every two weeks this can be avoided and maximal strength kept to a peak all year round. Remember conventional lifts like squats, bench press, power cleans or deadlifts don’t necessarily have to be done on max effort days. Instead you can lift heavy tires, use heavy medicine balls, or any other object that creates maximal loading on the muscles. Have you athletes work up to a heavy 1-5 reps for 1 set and make sure there are at minimum of 72 hours between max effort days using the same body part. Rest periods are generally longer (3-5 min) since the loads are maximal and time is needed to recover. This method builds limit strength and helps to develop explosive strength. Guys if you are not doing box squats you are missing out. These are an excellent way to build up the muscles of the hip complex and can also be done with bands. Do them below, parallel and above parallel. I think 70-80% is good, going 12-24 sets of 3-6 reps is the best to develop muscle density./strength/explosiveness. They are done very explosively (compensatory acceleration) off the bottom of the box. Each week hit a new max.