I have hope that you will do the things that you need to do and find success in doing so.
Another option could be just to go to the gym and do a completely different WO. Do a week of whole body ir something other than what your used to so get out of the mindset of pushing weight.
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Your experience with just walking for a week straight…can you share what it was like coming back to your regular training that next week?
I competed in a strongman competition at the end of that period, during which time I set 2 state records, took first place, and carried a 225lb sandbag for nearly 5 minutes.
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So you didn’t skip a beat haha
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The opposite: I got BETTER. Remember: that’s the entire point of a deload. You’re trying to dissipate accumulated fatigue for performance IMPROVEMENT. You do not get stronger in just 1 week of training, just like how you don’t get fatter in 1 week of eating. 1 week is a very short time to add or subtract body tissue, but it’s a great amount of time to recover. And when you’re recovered, you can train harder and better than when you are fatigued.
There should not be anxiety around 1 week of not training.
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THIS! Thank you!
The walking only deload for a week will happen and I’ll come back stronger. Period.
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This is the best summation of a deload anyone will hear.
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Another approach to a deload is to make all your lifts with the sole intent on feeling the targeted muscle contract. I believe Joe Weider called it “Mind-Muscle Connection.” Apart from just having a title for the lifting method, if you plan to compete in bodybuilding and you are not practicing muscle control you are missing a critical opportunity to separate yourself from the competition. Posing is extremely tiring. Do 15 minutes of that after your workout.
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And not adjusting calories, correct?
If you are in a calorie deficit, you need to add calories. The deficit could be contributing to your physical feeling of overtraining.
Dude
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Also. It sounds like you regularly train to failure. IMO, that could be the primary cause for your overtraining.
Working harder is not always working smarter.
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I already eat 3100 calories/day at my average weight of 187.
I eat more than that and weigh almost 20lbs less.
I never counted calories, so that means nothing to me. I always used the feedback system: If you were losing weight eating 3100 cal/day, you were eating in a deficit.
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In a maintenance?
I’m going to suggest you flip this thinking. Don’t be afraid of “feeling small and weak,” use that mental moment to get motivated again and push further than you would if you were tired and bored.
I almost put this concept in the Bro-Science thread, but I think discussing/mentioning muscle memory is also relevant to the deloading conversation, since anything you’ve “lost” can be regained with one trip through a drive through and a protein shake.
My unintentional deload over the past year has been a MRSA infection (in my foot, so no pressure by squatting, also keep your steps under 1k per day,) a pic line of vancomycin in my arm (so don’t lift more than 10 lbs, also eat low protein so you keep your liver and kidneys.) I went from 265 to 220 over the year. Got the infection amputated and the line out, then started started working out again and eating like a fiend. I’m back up to 255 after 6 weeks, and my wife had some interesting observations about the process. She said my fat levels stayed visually the same, but when I started eating a shit-ton of carbs and protein again, she commented my shoulders and chest got back in just a few weeks, and even if my BF was the same, I looked more proportionate. I’m a vanity lifter, so I wasn’t trying to hit a target weight or compete. Just being able to eat more food to enjoy lifting, and lifting more to enjoy more food.
Lifting sucked for the first couple of weeks but I’m on track to be able to hit my previous numbers, with higher reps, by the end of the year.
So yeah, to echo what everyone said, it’s not the end of the world.
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Interjecting but it’s extremely common for powerlifters to take a week off after peaking & testing maxes leading up to a meet. And it’s done because they come back to the bar at the meet at their strongest. You’ll be fine. Keep your diet in check and use the week to work on mobility, flexibility and soft tissue manipulation.
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Yes.
upper/lower split
10-15k steps a day.