Like pretty much everybody, I was on extended leave from being able to do any serious weight training over the past few months. In my case, since mid-March. I was able to do some bodyweight stuff at home, but really didn’t stick with it the way I should have. Before COVID shut down gyms in my city, I was in the final few weeks of running Powerbuilding II. But four months off has obviously put a stop to that. I’m able to go back to my gym now, but with the restrictions and risk, I’m hesitant to do so. I was, however, able to get my hands on a barbell and enough weight to cover my needs for a while. I decided to do the Beginner Template for at least 4 weeks, and am at the end of the second week. My pressing motions haven’t gotten too much weaker, but my squat and deadlift have dropped at least 100lbs each from my e1rm.
So, with all that preamble, here is my question:
Should I only do the 4 weeks of the Beginner Prescription before moving on to something else, or should I stick with it longer than that due to the long nature of the time gap? I’d like to go back to doing Powerbuilding II, as I was really enjoying that template and seeing good results, but I don’t want to jump the gun too early. Should I play it by ear, or should I run something else for a while in between? Or just stick with the Beginner Prescription a bit longer than 4 weeks? My main pieces of equipment are a barbell, weights, a (cheapo) rack, a bench that can do incline and some decline, and a door-mounted pull-up bar. As a supplemental question, should eating be any different during this sort of situation compared to typical training periods, due to trying to get back to a point I was at, or should I just treat it like I would normally?