Part of balancing training with real life is learning how to manage training after a layoff.
If you train long enough, you’ll eventually have to learn how navigate this.
I’m not going to address how to navigate a missed workout or a missed week even because basically in every circumstance the answer would be “It Depends.”
But for a multi-week or even multi-month layoff it’s generally a little simpler.
I usually use something that looks kinda like the Starting Strength Novice Linear Progression.
If you were a novice or early intermediate when the layoff occurred then I’ll generally just use that program – because you never advanced to anything more complex anyways.
But if you were a late stage intermediate or advanced athlete (this is more common) then you had by definition advanced to something more complex than the SS NLP.
So should you return to the SS NLP since you are basically a novice again?
Well – the thing is………you are not really a novice again.
Muscle memory is a very real thing and you didn’t have that as a novice.
You now have the capability to progress back to 315 or 405 or 495 or whatever much faster than the first go-around.
What may have taken 5 years, may now only take 6 months.
Sometimes a higher frequency program can actually slow down your progress, because it forces a slower progression than what you are likely capable of.
After a layoff an advanced athlete can usually take much bigger jumps back to his old numbers than he previously did.
But he still needs some time to recover from those big jumps. It’s harder to do that squatting 3x/week than it is 1-2x/week.
(This is actually similar to training an athlete who is taking anabolic steroids).
For instance, even a 500 lb squatter might return to action Squatting 3 x 5 x 135.
But his next workout isn’t going to be 3 x 5 x 140.
It might be 3 x 5 x 185.
And then 3 x 5 x 225.
It literally comes back that fast for a lot of experienced athletes.
But that would be hard to do Monday – Wednesday – Friday.
If you forced the frequency, you’d get smaller jumps, and actually slower progress even though you are squatting more often.
So instead I do this:
Monday: Bench Press 3 x 5 / Press 3 x 5 / Dips, Push Ups, Triceps etc (1-2 movements)
Tuesday: Squat 3 x 5 / Deadlifts 1 x 5 / Chins or Rows
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Bench Press 3 x 5 / Press 3 x 5 / Dips, Push Ups, Triceps, etc (1-2 movements)
Friday: Squats 3 x 5 / Deadlifts 1 x 5 / Chins or Rows
So this is a lot like the SS NLP. But we make a few alterations we didn’t do as a true novice.
And we do that for maybe 6-12 weeks or as long as it lasts, before returning back to our preferred style of intermediate / advanced programming.
There are other ways for sure. But this is what I use for my clients, and it likely works as well as anything.
