Personal experiences with muscle memory

I am considering taking an extended break from lifting later in the year.

I am interested in hearing personal stories from those who have taken a break, suffered an injury or been prevented from lifting for extended periods of time (two months plus) and how long it took you to get back to your previous (or bettered) STRENGTH level.

Any contributions would be appreciated (the more detailed the better especially on how you perodized your come back).

Cheers

Woodes

Good idea for a thread , Interested to hear some replies .

I haven't trained upper body for 4 months because my nerves have been damaged that supply the upper left side of my body (I have pretty bad muscle wastage in my tricep, bicep, shoulder, lat, chest- and massive strength loss). I'm interested to see how I go when I get back into training again re muscle memory...

I am a firm believer in muscle memory after long lay offs of 6-12 months. I've found the trick is to ease back into it and get use to the motions and feelings of the exercise before stacking on the weight. I've found it only takes a couple of months to be back where you were with the right approach and no residual side effects from the injury that forced the lay off. In many cases, the long rest can serve you well in that you not only reach your previous goals, you can also find yourself making further gains.

I went from full time gym training to a little bit of dumbbell lifting at home for a year. Ive been back in the gym 6 months now and am bigger and stronger than I was ever before, it all comes flooding back to your muscles, quicker than you might think.

Didn't go to the gym at all for over 8 months. Was still training 2x week gridiron with one game on the weekend. Had somewhere around a 5RM of 130-140kg on squat.

Came back doing SS starting at around 100kg and moved my way up. Over the last 6 months of training I've hit a new 5RM of 150kg and a new 1RM of 180kg. Bench and OHP didn't fare so well.

took a year off weights once (2007), only time in over 30 years.

Lost a bit of strength, despite doing pushups and bodyweight exercises at park, but still got back to around max strength back within 4-6 weeks when came back when compared to what i was doing prior to break. Bench press (from 6 on 95kg after year off back to 6 on 110kg).

I took about 8 years off lifting heavy from ages of about 31 to 38. Hardly lifted a weight during that time. I had trained continously from 15 to 31 with heavy weights and a fair bit of martial arts and practical shooting.

At 39 I bought some new equipment and started again. I welghed about 84kg. Within 3 months I got my bench back to 140kg and within 6 months my squats were back to 180kg. I gained about 4kg of muscle back within that first 6 months.

I lost maybe 3 months over the last two and a half years to sickness or injury and training is frequently interrupted by overseas travel.

Now I weigh 99kg, bench 170kg, squat roughly 220 and in my 42nd year I am at about 90% of the strength I had when I was 29.

I've only stopped because of injury. Tore a hip flexor which obviously prevented me from doing all lower body movements. I would say I had to stop doing anything leg related for about 3-4 months. I think slowly came back and started with high rep stuff 20ish. I was able to progress over the following 3 months to eventually get back to the lower rep stuff and by that time I was squatting at least what I was before the injury. (can't remember exactly though)

I have been training for about 4 years, but in that time for various reasons, (injury and life-related), I've only ever trained consistently for 6 months at a time, before having a long break (sometimes 6+ months).

In my experience it takes about 3 months to get back to within around 90% of my maxes, then another 3 months to go past my old PBs.
Do your maths and you will see this is a very effective way of not making any progress.

This is a very individual thing though. I know guys that have active jobs that can take 3 months off, come back and PB within a few weeks.

Sometimes life happens or you get injured, but if you can at all help it, try to at least keep up something - even if its one squat session a week, or mucking around with kettlebells - anything.

The longer and harder you have trained, the more dramatic the muscle memory effect after a lay off.

After 7-8 years lay-off I didn't look like I had ever lifted a weight. But within 3 months the bench was at 75 to 80% of pb and despite a buggered back and a bit of a dependence on prescription analgesics, muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatories, the squats were at nearly 75% of pb in less than 6 months. The use of analgesia and muscle relaxants ceased within year and now I hardly ever need to use anything other than occasional over the counter anti inflammatories.

It's a life long journey and the longer you spend programming your body and consistently lifting well, the better the body will cope with any break from training. And lay offs will happen to most people whether they plan it or not.

I can't remember anything

Woodes Rogers said:

I am considering taking an extended break from lifting later in the year.

I am interested in hearing personal stories from those who have taken a break, suffered an injury or been prevented from lifting for extended periods of time (two months plus) and how long it took you to get back to your previous (or bettered) STRENGTH level.

Any contributions would be appreciated (the more detailed the better especially on how you perodized your come back).

Cheers

Woodes

Click to expand...

The biggest things that will affect your comeback are your training age and the consistent training time put in before your layoff. A lifter with 5 years of consistent gym work will regain their previous levels of strength/mass quicker than a 10 month Noob with 6 months of serious training.

It all depends on what your goal is too. Strength will be maintained over a longer detraining period compared to musclular mass and aerobic endurance because it's a nueral adaptation not a physical one.

As an example, a close family member who used to bodybuild (105kg @5'8) was in a serious head on collision with an estimated impact speed of 130km/h. He headbutted the steering wheel because his ute had no airbags and suffered multiple facial fractures and limb breaks. The doctors said he survived the crash and recovery "due to the stronger than average neck musculature and his great physical condition". I can't see a better reason to continue lifting than "it saved my life".

I had 12 years off after faffing around gyms in an enthusiastic but ignorant way through my 20's.

Came back at age 41, am now 43. Still haven't quite matched my best t&g bench press from age 29, but am squatting in new territory by 40kg or so.

Conversely, am really struggling with deadlifts. I have no deadlift muscle memory, because I never did deadlifts as a younger man.

vonfram88 said:

The longer and harder you have trained, the more dramatic the muscle memory effect after a lay off.

After 7-8 years lay-off I didn't look like I had ever lifted a weight. But within 3 months the bench was at 75 to 80% of pb and despite a buggered back and a bit of a dependence on prescription analgesics, muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatories, the squats were at nearly 75% of pb in less than 6 months. The use of analgesia and muscle relaxants ceased within year and now I hardly ever need to use anything other than occasional over the counter anti inflammatories.

It's a life long journey and the longer you spend programming your body and consistently lifting well, the better the body will cope with any break from training. And lay offs will happen to most people whether they plan it or not.

Click to expand...

bams_101 said:

The biggest things that will affect your comeback are your training age and the consistent training time put in before your layoff. A lifter with 5 years of consistent gym work will regain their previous levels of strength/mass quicker than a 10 month Noob with 6 months of serious training.

It all depends on what your goal is too. Strength will be maintained over a longer detraining period compared to musclular mass and aerobic endurance because it's a nueral adaptation not a physical one.

Click to expand...

My experience agree with these statements. I trained reasonably consistently for 12 years, had 4 months off from Aug-Dec last year and have picked up 90%+ of my lifts since getting back into it around 5 weeks ago. Doms hurts like a bitch for the first few weeks though!