Disruption Rule of Thumb

Wow, that’s pretty exact calculations of strength loss. In reality, unless you have a prolonged stretch of inactivity, it’s most likely just your body and mind adapting to lifting heavy barbell weights again and not real muscle loss. If it were me, I wouldn’t retest the TMs but might start back on the 5’s week of whatever template I was running if I felt the need to build back up my mental and physical readiness for the weeks ahead. If I’m coming back from vacation, it’s just mentally easier for me to start lighter (5’s week, not too high a TM) than to come right back to PR’s at 95% of a TM.

Also, remember that this is a marathon and not a sprint. As long as you get back into it after a layoff, it ultimately won’t matter if you did so by jumping right back in, restarting at the 5’s week, or retesting your TM.

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