Layoffs

Some Thoughts and Ideas on Layoffs

(Hint: It’s More Than Just Taking it Easy)

     We all need layoffs from time to time.  They allow us to rejuvenate, recover, and “refill” our energy reserves.  Our muscles need them in order to recover sufficiently after many weeks of hard training.  Our nervous systems need them.  It is, in fact, often our nervous systems that require them the most.  But layoffs are good for more than just the body.  Our minds need them just as much as our bodies.  A mental break from training, and even thinking about training, helps us to return to the gym “fired up” for another few weeks or months of hard and heavy barbell sessions.

     You may wonder why I’m writing an essay on layoffs.  Isn’t it just about lying around and taking it easy?  Well, sometimes that’s the case.  There are decidedly times, depending on what “intensity” of lifting you’ve been training with, that a complete layoff from any and all activity is exactly what you need.  But not most of the time.  The majority of the year, your layoffs should be active ones, better to rehabilitate (and prehabilitate) your body and mind for your upcoming program(s).

     Let’s first discuss when to take layoffs.  When you take a layoff, and how many you need throughout a year, will depend upon your body, no one else’s.  I have known lifters that have gotten good results by taking off an entire week once every 4 weeks.  They would train hard for 3 weeks in a row, then take a complete break from lifting for a week.  Vince Gironda recommended that exact action with some of his programs.  Generally, for that to work, you need to train extremely hard for 3 weeks straight, utilizing plenty of volume, intensity, and frequency to justify that frequency.  As an example, Gironda would use it for bodybuilders who followed his 8 sets of 8 reps program.  In this 8x8 version (he had a less “intense” one which I included recently in my article “Everything Moderate”), you would perform 4 to 6 exercises per muscle group, all for 8 sets of 8 reps.  After 3 weeks of that sort of hell, your body could probably use a week's layoff.  Most lifters, however, shouldn’t train with that level of volume and intensity.  If you train hard for 3 weeks straight, I prefer an “active recovery” 4th week, not a total layoff.  One good method is to train hard on week 1, harder, but not all-out, on week 2, then train balls-to-the-wall on week 3, so hard that you are almost forced to take a down week on week 4.  That’s the kind of system that Bill Starr advocated.

     If you train with the sort of programs that I endorse, I think most lifters do well with between 2 and 4 weekly layoffs in a year.  You could take one week off after 12 weeks of training.  Many lifters, once they’ve adapted to being capable of handling a heavy workload, do well with one to two weeks off every 6 months.  I’ve also known lifters that would train for 12 months straight, then take off for an entire month.  Only you can decide what will work best for you.

     One of the best options, I believe, is to take what I call “mini-layoffs.”  Let’s say you train, on average, 5 days per week, using a program such as the one I outlined in my last high-frequency, grease-the-groove article.  After a few weeks of that, take off 4 to 5 days in a row.  It’s not too much that you start to lose strength or muscle mass—yes, that absolutely can happen over a week of not training if you haven’t been training with a high enough workload before the layoff.  4 to 5 days, however, is just enough to allow you to return to the gym with a renewed vigor.  With only a few days off, you can resume your training exactly where you left off.  One of the issues with longer layoffs is that, when you do return to the gym, you need to make sure you’re not doing too much or you risk too much delayed onset muscle soreness.  The adaptation of not making you sore, which high-frequency training initiates, can leave you when you take off for a week or more and do nothing at all.  Which brings us around to our next point.

     The primary component I want to discuss is the how of the layoff.  That’s correct.  Believe it or not, a proper layoff is something of a skill that you need to develop.  However frequently you decide to take a layoff, and however long it lasts—this is particularly true when it’s a longer layoff—it’s good to make it an active one.  You don’t need to lift, but you do need to stay active with other activities.  Your chosen activities should help with recovery, prevent injuries, aid in healing any injuries you are beginning to accrue, and—highly important even for your mental health if you fear this might happen—keep you from losing muscle mass, speed, power, and/or general strength.

     In his book “Built from Broken,” Scott Hogan gives these reasons for not taking a complete rest during your layoffs:

• Passive rest robs athletes of their fitness level, making re-entry into competition difficult.  For non-athletes, passive rest means taking large chunks of time, maybe even months, off from exercise each year.  This makes maintaining any kind of fitness level difficult.

• Long periods of passive rest cause muscle atrophy, shortening of connective tissue, changes in neuromuscular coordination, and weakened bones and joints.

• Studies show active recovery methods such as massage, stretching, and aerobic exercise help ease pain and soreness, reduce inflammation, improve circulation, increase delivery of oxygen and regenerative nutrients, and clear damaged tissue from injury sites to facilitate healing.

• Active recovery provides the mental and emotional benefits of exercise, warding off stress and keeping mood elevated.

• Passive rest after an injury completely neglects the law of mechanotransduction.  Without movement, your tissues do not heal optimally.  You’re left with weak scar-tissue-like formations that are easily torn and irritated.  Movement drives healing.

     Injury prevention and prevention of muscle/strength loss can’t happen if you simply rest your body completely.  Your muscles, tendons, and ligaments need to be worked, just not with resistance training.  This doesn’t mean during your layoff that you should go hard on a non-resistance activity, however.  For instance, I train in martial arts.  My martial arts training is often quite a bit harder on my body than my lifting sessions.  It would be an egregious error on my part if I stopped lifting weights for two weeks but then went to the dojo every day while I’m “off” and trained hard there.  I would return to the gym more fatigued than when I started the layoff.  Big mistake.

     There are a handful of activities that are good to do during layoffs.  The first, and best, is a long, daily (or every-other-day) walk.  When I take a week off from training, I like to go hiking.  Trail hikes, especially ones over varied terrains, work your leg muscles and your back in a way that a “casual” walk around the neighborhood or down at your local track or city walkway just can’t replicate.  Whatever form of walking you decide to engage in, walk for at least 30 minutes at a time.  An hour is probably even better.  Hippocrates, the Greek philosopher and “father of medicine,” famously said that “walking is man’s best medicine.”

     Dr. Mike Evans, professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at University of Toronto and staff physician at St Michael’s Hospital, lists these findings as just some of the benefits that walking does for the “average” person (which means that it can help the lifter even more):

• Patients with knee arthritis who walked three times weekly reduced their rates of pain and disability by 47 percent.

• Patients at high risk for diabetes who walked and participated in other healthy lifestyle changes reduced their risk by 58 percent.

• According to a meta-analysis study (that is, one that reviewed a number of similar studies to compare results), walking reduced anxiety by 48 percent.

• Walking is also the number one treatment for improving sleep.

     When I took up hiking several years back, I noticed something that intrigued me.  I seemed to maintain muscle mass almost completely even without training often.  I am, of course, a huge proponent of high-frequency training—even a very cursory look over my blog attests to that—but if I was going to only train, say, 2 days per week, I would go for long walks on days that I didn’t train.  I believe that doing so may allow you to train with low-frequency and still get good results from your workouts, without necessarily training with a lot of volume and intensity during the infrequent weight sessions.  Hiking and/or walking daily during your layoff will also help you to maintain your muscle and strength.

     In addition to walking, other gentle activities you could take up include yoga, Tai Chi, qigong, or even something such as Pilates.  For more on those activities, and some thoughts about them, read my essay “Non-Lifting Workouts.”

     Even though you are laying off from lifting, you don’t want to take a layoff from the other important aspects that a lifter should be doing every day, such as proper sleep and nutrition.  During your layoff, make sure that you are still following a muscle-building diet.  You should still be getting, on average, 1 gram of protein per pound of lean mass on a daily basis along with monitoring your daily overall caloric intake and your percentage of macronutrients.  If you’re a hardgainer—I don’t really like that term and I think it’s usually misunderstood, but this isn’t the essay for that—you need to ensure that you’re still eating frequent meals and getting enough mass-building calories.  Stick with the diet you were doing while training.

     Layoffs are actually a good time to really get your diet in order.  Spend the time that you would usually train to go grocery shopping.  (If you need a good grocery list, I have one in my essay “Train Big and Eat Big or Train Little and Eat Little.”)  If you’re not much of a cook, or one at all, then spend the hour or so that you would typically train to cook a meal.  Find several recipes that you know you would like and learn to cook them!

     At the very least, don’t spend your layoff eating lackadaisically, getting your meals from fast-food joints and eating junk food, such as cookies, cakes, and chips.  I’ve known many lifters who do exactly that.  They consider a layoff the time to return, albeit briefly, to their pre-lifting life of bad food and listless living.  Lifting is a lifestyle.  Make damn sure you continue that life even during your layoffs.

Sources:

Built from Broken: A Science-Based Guide to Healing Painful Joints, Preventing Injuries, and Rebuilding Your Body by Scott Hogan, published by SaltWrap Press, copyright 2021

“Walking is the Best Medicine” from the online journal Extension at the University of Missouri