Hey guys, recently I had to undergo a small surgery to remove an cyst, was advised to do not engage in strenous activity for 2 weeks. Yesterday was my first day back training and noticed quite a strength loss, particularly on squats. Was doing sets of 172.5kg for 5 at RPE 8 prior to taking this time off, today, 140kg for 5 was a RPE 10 basically. Does anyone have any material about what causes this strength loss and how to go about it, how long on average should it take to return to the regular strength, etc. Just trying to find more information on time off, detraining, performance loss, etc, thanks!
That seems like a big drop for a relatively short layoff. Some of that loss may just be loss of neuromuscular efficiency which will come back quickly. My guess is that within 3 weeks (maybe 2 weeks) you’ll be back to where you left off.
I have similarly huge strength losses after short breaks too, after a meet I usually just mess around for a couple of weeks and I lose like 50lbs off my working weight on squats every time, I then have to spend the next 2-3 months of training just getting back to where I was, it’s pretty annoying. Where as I know some people who can mess around for months and hit a totally undeserved PR.
It probably has to do with eating less protein and calories combined with poor genetics for retaining strength - the genetics of that trait are not always linked to your ability to gain strength in the first place - so i’ve heard.