Hi there,
First day back at the gym in 5 months today - needless to say, it was difficult.
Any advice on reasonable expectations for regaining strength - 2 months, 6 months, a year? I’d like to set my expectations so that I’m not getting frustrated with progress.
Thanks
my n=1 noting that I am not you:
back in august last year my e1rm for S : B : D were ~140 : 87: 167.5kg. I took pretty much 5 month break from the gym, with no exercise.
Returned to the gym in feb of this year in which I ran the first phase of the beginner template, this took me to 122.5 : 79 : 152.5 by the start of march.
Then lockdown and home template for a bit until i got a rack setup in the garage start of april. From there I ran a short on-ramp back into barbell training then beginner phases 2 and 3.
My e1rm as of last week: 152 : 82 : 155. (the squat was not quite a PR I have hit that previously)
Perhaps also of note: I am about 5kg lighter then I was back in august last year.
Probably varies a lot person to person. I’ve heard that on average it takes half the length of the layoff to regain your strength. There are a bunch of studies where people train, detrain then retrain and strength is tracked, maybe check those out.
My experience:
3.5 months away from the gym, did lots of weighted pushups, unilateral pushups, weighted Bulgarian split squats, tricep extensions, and pullups. I gained 7lbs. First week back my e1rm for DLand BP were down 5%, Squat maintained. Now 3 weeks in BP is back, DL is still 3% under and my squat e1rm is at a 5lbs pr, which is 15lbs above when the gym closed.
Awesome thanks both