What do you guys think about taking a week off training sometimes during the year?
My coach suggest me that.
Is it really usefull for the body to take this resting time or I will stop progressing?
My last break was during Christmas last year.
Three-to-five days off every 12 weeks is definitely a good idea. The key is to stay active during those days, but stay away from the weights.
Your body needs planned breaks throughout the year so it will recuperate and continue to grow and get stronger and avoid injuries. So you’re coach is right.
You’ve gone nearly a year since you’ve had a break. You may want to go ahead and take one. Come back with renewed vigor and motivation.
I believe some people here suggest a week off every couple of months.
-Dave
Ian King’s programs suggest 3 weeks on and 1 week of active rest.
I take a light week every month.
These are the rest to work ratios that I find to be most effective.
Bodybuilding: 1 week off for every 12 weeks on.
Powerlifting: 1 week off for every 3 weeks on, or use the week off as an unloading/structural hypertrophy week. If using a unloading/hypertrophy week take a week off after a full 12 week cycle.
General Athletics (off-season): 1 week off for every 9 weeks of weight training. During the in-season it might not be wise to take a week off until the season is completed.
During the off weeks the trainee should take it easy and try to eliminate stress.
I listed the above ratios to give you an example i.e. a place to start. Ultimately it depends on you, your body, training age, recover ability, work capacity, genetics, sleep quantity/quality, stress level, and diet (protein/carb/fat intake), ext., ext. Consider the above variables and examples, then decide what?s the best work to rest ratio for you .
There’s no such thing as the best work to rest ratio, only the best ratio for you at this present time.
Hope that Helps.
Very interesting!! Thanks a lot for your answers…so now im going to take a week off without feeling too much guilty… 
It’s a good idea, but don’t either completely vegetate or overdo the alternative exercise you do. This summer I took 8 days off but went hiking in those 8 days, averaging 5 hours a day, and came back weaker!
ok, what’s the deal here? i’ve read 6-8 weeks on, and 1 week off… ? and now i see all these other formats. which one is it? hehe
[quote]deanosumo wrote:
It’s a good idea, but don’t either completely vegetate or overdo the alternative exercise you do. This summer I took 8 days off but went hiking in those 8 days, averaging 5 hours a day, and came back weaker![/quote]
I’m no expert, but I’m thinking the reason this happened is that you expended an awful lot of energy doing all that hiking. The result was catabolic - not only was the energy you used for hiking taken from the foods you ate and your body’s fat resevoir, it also came from your body breaking down some of your muscle to use as energy. This is natural… I believe you can minimize it by eating more calories than you burn.
I’m currently in the middle of a planned week off. I trained for 10-12 weeks straight, only missing 2 workouts. I was reading the “Stones and Tires” post in the Strength Sports section of the forum, and Brad Cardoza suggests learning how to pay attention to the signs that your body is giving you.
Well, I was still feeling sore longer after workouts of similar intensity than a month ago(did that sentence make sense?). Plus my weights were going nowhere. I was doing Westside training and after 8 weeks of awesome progress, my maxes came to a screeching halt. I then decided to take a week off.
I’ve still been eating cleanly and doing low intensity cardio for at least 30 minutes a day. Taking this week away from the weights has also really renewed my enthusiam to get back and really hit things hard!
Yes, you have to find what works best for you and your body.
Some people can go every 12 weeks without a break. Others can only go three weeks before needing a break.
Ian has various rest recommendations such as 3:1, 4:1, 6:1, 8:1, 12:1. Which means that the first number is the amount of weeks you train and the second number is the amount of rest to work weeks.