Starting a new programme after a month off. What to do?

deadlybuzzman

So between holidays, life, work etc I'll be going back to my normal gym routine in the morning and I'm wondering am I as well doing a couple of weeks of some general linear progression type set up before testing my maxes or do I just dive right back in going off percentages of the likes of my squat PR which was about 8 weeks ago?

I had a 20 mins squat session and although 185 is my low bar squat PR, after only 5 reps with 100 kg and 120 kg my legs were toast. Admittedly I got annoyed and did a divebomb 120 x 1 and 140 x 1 high bar squat but after the 2 sets of 5 it honestly felt like I had done 10 sets of 10 and I was sore for days.
Obviously my strength is still there but will a terrible work capacity hold me back or will that improve anyway?
I was thinking of doing the cube method but I'm totally open to suggestions on that too

Hanley

Knock 10-15% off any maxes, use those numbers to calc. After 2-3 weeks when it starts to feel easy again, increase maxes by 5-7% each week for recalc purposes.

Eg:

Training numbers calculated off below % of max
Week 1: 85%
Week 2: 85%
Week 3: 90%
Week 4: 95%
Week 5: 100%

So if the program says week 1 - 80% 3x5, calculate it by 100%*85%*80%

Make sense?

The first 2 weeks back squatting will suck. Adjust %s down so you can complete the assistance work even if you use lower %

Guideline we use is for assistance work, during volume phases, if you can't get back in 90s later, it was just too heavy.

deadlybuzzman

Sound yeah makes sense. So take home message is not to be so fixed in my thinking/programming