Except from upcoming @elitefts article I wrote called The 6 Rules Of Training For A Washed Up Meathead. To be published later this month. (unedited)
Rule #1 - Take Time Extended Time Off
Up until a few years ago, the most time off training I can remember was no more than a week or two. It wasn't part of my belief system, and when I did take off two weeks, the joint pain got worse. In a way, it is like a race car slamming on the brakes. It's better to slow down than take time off, but after I would back it down, I didn't want or feel I needed the time off.
Due to medical conditions spread over the past few years, I found I was not able to train for weeks on end. A few times a couple months at a time.
This what I found; the first few weeks, the joint pain was much worse, and then it got better. Never to the point of being pain-free but better than most of the year. When I returned to training, I was weaker and not in shape, no doubt about that. Each time I came back stronger than the time before. At the time of writing this, I have not trained in seven weeks and do not intend to train for another 4–5 weeks. I go to the gym and help others, but that's it. I set a goal that I wanted to achieve by the end of the year and did it in the third week of October. I said after I did it that I would not train again until next year, and meant what I said. Do I feel out of shape? Yep. Do I know I am weaker? Yep. Do I care about it? Nope.
It took me a long time to get to this point, but I know for me this is the best way to go about my training. When I resume training, I will have two to three months of merely getting back in shape – or to a point I can begin to train for something that I will have to strive and work hard to do. I know in my mind what I want to do next, and it will take 9–12 months of training to do it, assuming all goes well. When that objective is achieved, I will take off another couple of months, and so on.
I know I’ll be better and stronger for it.
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As you will read in the complete articles these rules DO NOT APPLY TO EVERYONE. If you have a couple decades of competing under your belt and the dues you needed to pay have come due... these are for you. It took almost ten years after I was done competing for my real dues to come due. I was so happy I got out with a couple surgeries and a trashed shoulder. NO lower-body issues outside of slight pulls here and there. I mean, zero. 9 years after I did my last meet my hip needed replaced. A few years later - the other one. I have found ways were I do not let my pain control me. This is what the article will be about. I would not suggest this for an active lifter unless they were very seriously injured.
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