Strength boost after time off from training

Hey,

Does anybody else feel that when you do not work out for 5 or more days that you come back stronger than ever? I had to take a few days with no working out and when I returned to training I suddenly had an extra 40 lb added to my deadlift e1rm. What used to be a 5 reps @ RPE 8 turned into @ RPE 5. I didn’t feel THAT overtrained/overstressed that I needed a long rest period…But it seems to work! This isn’t the first time I responded this way.

Justin

Wouldn’t go so far as to say I had a strength ‘boost’, but I certainly don’t fret about taking a few weeks holiday and not even touching a barbell. I can always seem to pick up where I left off and feeling far more invigorated to boot.
Then again I’ve had similar results from just deciding training is becoming tedious and spending a week doing more GPP type stuff.

Obviously, neither one of these strategies is optimal in the long term.

I noticed this back when I used to do bro splits. It was never repeatable though, in that I couldn’t lift one week then take a week off twice in a row and come back stronger after that second off week. It only seemed to work once every couple of months.

This is actually very similar to a desensitizing/resensitizing after a pivot or deload week. Like this guy doing the LP that Jordan mentions here: https://youtu.be/CGszuBHrwE0?t=34m33s

I’ve always experienced the opposite. If I stop training for 5-7 days, it takes me 2-3 weeks to get back to where I was prior to stopping. This is why I fear getting sick so much!

This is my experience as well. I can take 1 week off and be just fine. But any more than that, and usually about 2-4 weeks before I’m back and rollin’.