Training after sickness

Medical Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hi! I have just come back from a trip where i stacked a cold and a tourista on top of each other. I haven’t eaten properly for about a week and lost about 10 pounds (probably some from dehydration).
I have just started to train again today and started the GPP hypertrophy. My performance was pathetic and was far from reaching the prescribed % that i calculated based on the 1RM i had tested the week before being sick.
I was wondering if this decrease in strength is most likely temporary or if i have simply become weaker. Should i throw my recently tested 1RM to the trash can as unuseful information or are those numbers gonna be relevant again soon? Should i restart the program when i’m back to where i was or should i use my new pathetic performance as my new baseline.

I’m sorry if that kind of question have been asked and answered before. I thank the BBmedecine team for your astounding work.

2

I was wondering if this decrease in strength is most likely temporary or if i have simply become weaker.

Probably a bit of both. Fortunately, it doesn’t matter, and you should bounce back. Think long term.

Should i throw my recently tested 1RM to the trash can as unuseful information or are those numbers gonna be relevant again soon?

Your prior 1RM is irrelevant now, and that’s not how we recommend selecting training loads anyway. The more “valid” of a measurement it is, the better of a “ballpark” it might give you for load selection, but when it comes down to it, you really should be using RPE.

Should i restart the program when i’m back to where i was or should i use my new pathetic performance as my new baseline

Stop beating yourself up. Will this matter six months from now? A year from now? Five years from now? It’ll be a blip. Get back to work.

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