I think one important benefit of breaks and deloads that wasn't (understandably) covered in the video is joint recovery. Joints/tendons/ligaments don't recover nearly as fast as muscles and I personally believe these breaks help give them time to recover and an uninjured person makes way more gains than an injured one

Been on a training break for 12 months. Gains are gonna be so sick whenever I finish my break

Takeaway: Don't sweat taking a real vacation. Go have fun, give the body a break. Come back, hit the routine refreshed.

This channel is pure gold. Never ever stop making these videos, they are so helpful you can´t imagine how much. I have watched every single video like a marathon. Keep it up!

Re-sensitization phases are often overlooked. Sometimes you have to take a step back to take two steps forward

Have been experimenting with this over the years and 8 days off every 8 weeks works great for me, always come back stronger, both physically and mentally, haven't had a significant injury since! Should also be enough time for the joints etc. to heal.

The Silver Era bodybuilders took 14 days off every 3 months of training. Steve Reeves and Leroy Colbert did this themselves. This was in the 1940's to 50's. I give a lot of credit to Silver Era bodybuilders because they actually tried everything, to figure out what worked and what didn't work. I take 11 days off every 3 months myself. I am always had me ready and motivated to get back to lifting. 💪🏾

I am not scared of losing muscle anymore. I had a 4 year break with poor nutrition (I was homeless for some time) and after I started working out again, I not only could lift the same weight I lifted before, but I actually managed to build up more strength and mass than I have ever had. And all that in the first month of getting back into training. I now started implementing way longer regeneration breaks than before and since I realized I can build more muscle if I pause for a week or two, I started implementing complete training pauses. Every few weeks I pause for one or two training cycles. To give my body enough time to recover and re-sensitize. One training cycle is 6 days long for me. I do push, pull, pause, legs, abs, pause. 6 day cycle which already has a lot of regeneration. But one thing is very important though, I've made the experience that I need to do this to have this effect with all that rest: I need to really fuck up my muscles on the training days. 6 to 12 sets per muscle, sometimes I even do more than 12 per muscle, but only 6 max per exercise. I've taken steroids in the past. And even with steroids I've never had the strength that I have today. This is crazy. I think we all are working out way too little on out training days and implementing way too little rest via our resting days. I really do think that this is the thing that is keeping most people from building strength and muscle faster and better.

I train 3 days a week, full body (using an A/B) routine. For many years I used to take a week off every 2 or 3 months. However, for the last few years I have found that training continuously but occasionally dropping back to 2 days a week, allows me to stay on top of recovery and keep making good progress. I'm almost 64 and this works for me :)

Hey all! I hope the video was interesting in some way. It would be awesome to hear if anyone has experience with the stuff detailed in the video! Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 0:37 Part I: 6 Weeks on 3 Weeks Off 3:29 Part II: Training Breaks “Resensitize” You 6:20 Part III: 10 Days off Better Than 3 Weeks Off? 9:03 Part IV: What About Deloads? 9:47 Part V: How Does Periodization Fit Into This? 11:41 Part VI: Takeaways

Interesting! I’ve been taking one week rest every 4-6 weeks for years now, mainly for injury prevention but also to prevent burnout, and never saw any detriment from doing so. Apparently it may have been actually helping me!

Interesting seeing this video since I've been trying out two weeks on one week off recently. I just find after two weeks of pushing myself I start feeling worn down in an overtrained kind of way, so I started taking a week off to do lighter active recovery type exercise, and then the next week I feel nice and refreshed and ready to push myself again. So far I've had pretty good strength gains with it, and the reset week also gives me a bit of extra time for other things. It's felt like a really nice balance so far.

Thanks for always bringing us the latest scientific research and how to aply it to our trainings , top tier fitness channel

This is a very interesting concept. The problem with hyperthropy studies is that they are so short. You can gain strength very quickly but muscle building isn't necessarily that easy and quick.

Always glad when I see a new video from your channel. I can't stop recommending your videos enough to my friends who lift

Your videos are so thorough, it's always a joy to watch them. You perfectly answer the question, every time, and admit when something isn't known. I'm glad I found this channel

As with so many studies though, it is done on untrained individuals... ultimately they will explode in growth doing almost anything. I'd be much more interested in studies carried out on intermediate lifters or even advanced and pro lifters.

Oh man ! I've never seen any other youtuber talking about this... absolute stunner man! Please keep on making informative videos like these:)

Another great video. I especially love how balanced you are with drawing conclusions, summarising that we need more research and there is no certainty (yet) that training breaks will work for you. SOOO many other content creators would end with "..therefor this PROVES that training breaks do xyz". I think I'll have a go with the training breaks. I'm over 40 now and if nothing else I can see it giving me aging body more of a chance of heal and recover. I actually just came back from 10 days camping where I didn't do any heavy lifting and produced several personal bests on my first day back on the weights. I'm still sore as hell 2 days later lol, but it feels like the rest let me work a lot harder and I'm sure they'll be gains.

Glad to see you're finally getting the exposure this content deserved. This channel is still extremely underrated.

I’m 30, dealt with knee injuries (picked up weight) in the military. Training there taught me that overworking your body opens you up to serious injury. Now that I’ve recovered somewhat I don’t do to much. I do body weight circuits and run. I don’t focus on mass just core and endurance. I always don’t workout out to failure anymore and mostly every other day it’s easier on my body.

Another great video. I only really have training breaks when, as mentioned in the video, life's unpredictability. I do take a few throughout the year but they generally aren't planned. I've just had a week off and now have approx. 6 weeks before my summer holiday, so its timed fine for me.

Very significant. This might be a clue to greater long term gains. Thank you.

thanks for keeping it short and concise. 🙏

So Mike Mentzer was onto something. Experience beats speculation ALL the time.

One of the greatest video I saw for long time. I believe that's important to give also some rest to the joints. Thank to share these very interresting studies.

Great video! I would rather not take a long break. Rather, I like to sprinkle in an extra day off in and there. I'm not only going for gains, but health and the feeling workouts give me emotionally and psychologically.

Love this channel. Thanks for all the work.

I really start to like your channel, and also I enjoy to read every single comment from others people here. Hope your channel will grow more and always bring a good stuff. Thanks for sharing!

I knew from experience that deloads and breaks are important. In my case, after 3 or so months of consistent training I start to feel stale and the weights would start to move slow. I just didn't know the mechanisms behind it. This vid was very educational. Some science to supplement my knowledge from practical experience.

Wow thats fascinating. Thanks for another brilliant video!

thanks for the video and sharing all the references as well. i share the same opnion on 'deload' . ill test a planned detraining of 7 to10 days for a couple months and see what happens

Problem with a 3-week break is staying sane keeping yourself otherwise occupied during your usual workout time.

Wow so vacations are really "needed" 👌😎✨

thank you from the bottom of my heart

I love this video. Thank you!

This video is 🔥 I plan on incorporating periodic longer rest periods in my regiment. I was looking at the Jacko et al study... they didn't explain why they picked 10 days. I would love a follow up study that examines pathway phosphorylation re-sensitization levels over time, e.g. after 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 days of rest.

This confirms what Mike Mentzer preached all along. His low frequency approach has merit considering that post each training session individuals were given enough time to properly resensitize anabolic pathways. I myself work each muscle group with 4 sets to failure weekly. The volume is split between 2 full body workouts, which may not be optimal (research suggests 9-20 weekly sets) but it still works.

Great content as always

This, i find to be one of the best arguments for HIT. With substantive less work volume long term gains can be comparable (which feels like black Magic tbh but its not, its just biology) or even better in some cases (depending on responsiveness to types of training stimuli) if your leg days (for example) are spread apart so that mTOR desensitization is barely a factor at play, volume and tonnage lifted could be majorly boosted and being an order of magnitude more effective. The more i find research like this, the more i feel mentzer might have been onto something

Thanks for the video. One issue I have with taking a training break is getting back to it. In other words, once I stop I find it very difficult to get started again.

another very useful video!

One of the BEST channels on KZfaq 🥰

Medical Exercise Specialist Pro-Tip: Our only problem with these type of studies would be if participants were done with both men & women, owe had never lifted, if they lifted how long have, they been exercising for this study was done and for what period of time and were they using PED's? Other than that, it was helpful, if next time you can let your viewer's no more in-depth research. Keep up the great work.

wow, this is really interesting and useful, thank you!

Excellent investigation.

DISGUSTINGLY UNDERRATED YOURE INCREDIBLE

Another knowledge bomb dropped.

You keep blowing my mind 👍

Best fitness channel ever

most underrated chanel love your videos

Massive info

Funny, I'm going on my 6th week right now. Stretching and working the bottom part of each ROM has put on a decent amount of mass so far. Great content.

Taking breaks makes me feel like crap. Also, this is how good habits get broken.

Solid information

You a gem 💎

Dammit boy I'm obsessed with this channel. I love it when the science backs the theory.

underrated channel!

Due to work and other obligations l had to stop my daily workout and only go to the gym only on Sundays. Almost without exception l was stronger/ more reps than the previous session. I had a similar experience with some uphill sprints l was doing a few years ago - l consistently got faster when l changed from 3 to 1 time a week. I might now try every 10 days as the interval.

Cool, I felt like a break, and began it two days ago. Might just go for the swim and sauna.

I think this is critical. We know that body has many metabolic pathways. We know that too much activation of one pathway leads to resistance. The modern world is awash with metabolic illness and insulin resistance. That is reversed by fasting, keto, time restricted feeding. It makes perfect sense that periods of growth need to be followed by periods of rest. Thank you for for this video. It makes me more confident about having "a week off occasionally". My blood work constantly shows elevated "Creatine Kinase" levels. I have wondered if that's been a sign of not getting enough rest.

On a more focused note: i have experienced the best gains (long term) maintaining the same weekly volume for each muscle group, but doing it once a week. In the beginning, there was a noticeable loss due to less sarcoplasmic liquid in the tissues. After that, the loss was recovered and then got better and better. I think this is due to the fact that training less frequently does not allow for maximum adaptation, therefore stressing the muscle better and causing better growth. It is also important to notice that every six weeks I switch exercises, using the first week as deload while approaching new lifts.

Good video man! I am a big believer that overtraining is a thing, and that you will growth more muscle by implementing more rest days. and thank god for muscle memory, witout it there will be no bodybuilding around nowadays 😁

This is a good class

I used to train 5 days a week from Monday to Friday. I kept wondering why I wasn't getting any stronger. But once I cut that down to three times a week, I do notice a significant difference. Now I'm only going to start doing it twice a week.

thank u...

Just my 2 cents. When I was a young guy in my teens and early 20s I would train often up to 5 days a week but would recover rapidly and after 12 weeks of hard training I’d need only one week off to reset and recover before starting the training cycle again. Now at 43 I cannot do more than 3 weight workouts a week. I also do much less volume and don’t max out anymore but I’m still able to maintain nearly the same physique naturally. I’ve recently adapted more of a high intensity type of hybrid with high frequency. For example Interestingly I’ll warm up on bench and do one main set almost to failure but doesn’t have to be as long as I do one more rep than last time or more weight. Then I repeat this with back and legs etc. then two days later I’ll do this again and it’s working incredibly well. It’s similar to a Dorian Yates style. Hit it hard but very low volume but not trashing the muscle like Mike Mentzer because that leads to injuries. I believe in pushing yourself but I think trashing the muscle to the point of complete failure is counterproductive especially for older guys and natural lifters.

Brilliant visuals!!! 👏👏👏 So much better than watching some guy just talking into a camera

Given that your muscles become desensitized to a training consistent and constant regime of exercises after approximately 3 weeks, it makes sense that a 3 week rest period would be optimal to break this down fully. 3 weeks of hard regular training, followed by 3 weeks of solid rest works wonders. I have been experimenting with rest periods and would confirm the overall sentiments stated in this video. Taken a step further, it also makes perfect sense to use that rest period from strength training to train say cardio, even if just in a casual manner. Oxygen flow is crucial for strength building and often most people prefer to not train both simultaneously as it can feel overly taxing and also time consuming.

Good video, I was doing 2 days on one day off, but total gym visits out of a week was 3-4 max. But, I went on holiday for 6 days, came back chopping at the bit to get back in the gym, and then I did 6/7 days which I never done before and I felt amazing. My recovery was fine, no real Dom's, and I train hard. Not gona do this every week but for my personally gym keeps away depression so I think I will find it hard to take 3-4 days off a week now.

Really interesting. I'm in my 50s now so I'm just happy to get to the gym every second day. But I train all over body, quite intensely and after 4 or 5 workouts, I'll rest for an extra day or 2. I feel stronger than ever.

Another one🤜

1) I'd expect ever better relative results for the group with breaks if they were training their whole bodies rather than one major exercise. 2) Suggests also that perhaps programs should be specialized to focus on different body parts. During the 3 week break from the bench press, the break group could have trained their legs and possibly made gains there too. The break group grew the same with only 2/3 of the total volume. 3) Also note that "growth" did NOT happen during the break period as some HIT advocates suggest. Lifters came back with less muscle after 3 weeks off meaning that adaptation can and does precede recovery with regard to at least some physioligical characteristics (recovery of training sensitization came during a period when adaptation had already peaked and regression of began. 4) Both programs produced about 35% increase in muscle mass in 6 months of training. For a typical 160 pound male, this would amount to about 20 pounds of muscle gain in 6 months if it was applied to the whole body. How would the cumulative effects of a whole body workout affect this? 5) I'd like to know how the break group lost muscle in those 3 week breaks. Was it fairly linear, or did it occur in more in the first or last of the 3 weeks. Did they GAIN a little in the first week of the 3 week break and then drop off? Did they drop off quickly and then plateau on the loss.

Now this is really interesting, if this is researched more it could redefine training regiments.

Additionally, re: "de-loads". De-loads take advantage of reminiscence-the body responding to stress as if it was the degree that was most recently experienced for a period of time. Meaning-when you deload, your body will continue to respond to the workouts AS IF YOU ARE DOING MORE. The "breaks" are dependent on "muscle memory" to work. A "deload's" results take greater advantage of reminiscence, allowing GREATER gains in the "deload" period. The trick is timing-you don't want to go into a deload far into overtraining, because neural fatigue then becomes too great of a factor. Then you MUST take a break. For what it's worth, "reminiscence" has confused many people that "less is more"..they are told they are overtraining, reduce sets/reps, get GREATER gains for a short period, think it is the shorter workout producing the effect (it is the shorter AFTER the longer), but then, stagnate...and spend years trying to figure out what they are doing wrong. Happens with HIT or "return to basics" for many (Overtrain, do "less" (deload), have fast growth, but then stagnate and spend years trying to figure out how to "tweak" their abbreviated routine to make it work again).

Haha, the very definition of "work smarter, not harder"!

This could be why the Mike Mentzer training style claimed it could build so much muscle, it wasnt the intensity it was the long breaks of no exercise

This video has helped me resolve to take a training break. I’ve been going at it 5-6 days a week for almost a year with significant gains but have started to plateau (plus I’ve got a nagging brachial biceps tendonitis that I’d love to see go away.). Thanks for the evidence based kick in the ass!

Wow...just wow, I'm speechless, it's so interesting, maybe it's the way. Btw, you are growing rapidly nowdays, now you about 25k!! I'm seeing 100k in no time.

So a recurring 10 days break might actually be the most time-efficient way to build muscle, but now I'm left to wonder: how long does it take to get your hypertrophy signaling desensitized? Saw a guy in the comment section suggest 2 weeks of training and 1 of rest which would be in line with the first the first study cited in the video. I'm highly interested in this since having ADHD makes it really difficult for me to stick to a 100%-on schedule for long periods of time. Having regular breaks without losing gains would be really helpful. Great content anyways, definitely gonna sub and stick around for a while, keep it up

I'm currently training once a week. I'm training 2 hours pretty much the whole body 7 rep maximum. i then do in about an hour of rock climbing and then training the same muscle groups plus some filler muscles with volume training ie drop sets to failure. Having a week pause seems to be very good in letting the body recover and allowing me to build up that aggression resulting from the testosterone. its also useful in allowing you time to reassess your goals and fix your goals for the next week. I've been training for over 15 years so I kind of know if something is working or not and this seems to be working. There are a few studies which show that recovery takes up to a month so I kind of think that the frequency of training currently is somewhat dependent on the marketing of the gyms.

I used to think 7-10 days was sufficient for a DeLoad, now I understand that even 3 weeks is not only sufficient- but could be MORE beneficial!! I will need to update my programming accordingly.. Thanks for being in the trenches so we don't have to- Keep it up!!! Cheers, Z

I have been training very consistently for 5 1/2 years 4-5 days per week. Due to a major life change and possible muscle pain and fatigue for 6 months post COVID, I found myself training very little, perhaps 1 PPL split every 2 weeks with only 6 or so sets to volitional failure. I found that I held onto most of my muscle over 6 months. NOT what I expected. I have gone back to consistent training with a 5 day bro split a month ago as an experiment with noticeable strength and visual improvements. For now, at least.

This helps explaining why, even though I have to take a rest week every two weeks of training I still make strength and mass gains - and have more time for other things I love. Great vid, I hope your channel will skyrocket asap, you deserve it :D

Before hearing of time off impoving gains, I missed some workouts, thought my number of pull ups was going to drop by a couple, but instead I did a couple more than I had previously been able to.

if anything this highlights to me that regardless of training regime, almost anyone, quite easily, will reach their potential as long as they are giving it a good nudge and have a grasp on nutrition. I made the majority of my gains within a few short years and it really didnt matter if i went super balls out or didnt train too hard. I very much think if i had a clone I could do this exact same study vs myself. But I would say the point at which both groups reach at the end of 24 weeks is largely the average natty ceiling that they are all reaching. To get past that point it takes insane training and calories and or peds but to reach that point, 24 weeks, you could get there doing almost anything. 5x5, 10x10, pyramid, 2 weeks on 1 off, almost anything

This doesn’t mean you should start slacking off bros, keep killing it in the gym.

I didn't train for 2 week, Enjoyed some ice cream and little bit of sweets, and noticed some gains on my muscle size. My joints started to feel better also. I'll try to take a week off every month.

I take a mandatory 4 or 5 days off about every month. Seems like a nice reset period. I'll usually get a little bit of soreness on my first couple of sessions after the break, which seems like a good thing to me.

The natural life of animals is not a constant struggle- but periodic bouts of struggle interspersed with long rests and as much laziness as they can get away with. It would stand to reason the human body carries the same drives and cycles as most mammals- especially primates. Brief moments of high expenditure needed to secure food followed by time to eat, digest, and rest until the food is dwindling. Constant struggle typically results in death in nature. Intermittent struggle is the norm. So bodies are often adapted to account for intermittent struggles quickly while slowly adjusting to its everyday circumstances

Pavel has for years said the Russian cycling method is the best for strength because it's similar to this. Start with a light weight and add more every session until you max then start again to resensitise yourself

I have been doing this. 3:1. Three weeks in. One week eat like a slave, sleep like a baby, chill like a monk. This has been working out for me so far. If I keep training without the one week break, I lose weight. Since I do Calisthenics mostly, I feel my endurance getting better and i can squeeze out more reps. It doesn't affect aesthetically much but the things thatbused to feel heavy, doesn't anymore. :')

💪

I train currently in 2 week blocks alternating between pure strength block and a 'explosive' strength block. 2 weeks of regular powerbuilding/bodybuilding training (not too light) then 2 weeks of 3x a week explosive strength training. NOT FOR BEGINNERS WITH KETTLEBELLS! Start with one handed movements first! This is what that looks like: Each week a light, medium then heavy workout. I do double kettlebell clean and jerks as the main exercise. Hard=2,4,6 reps x 3 ladders, trying to complete faster every hard workout. So rest only as long as needed between reps and ladders (sets) and time your hard workout. Once you can't shave off time, you ad a set to the ladder, so next is 2,4,6 reps x 4. Then x 5. Once you can't shave time off on 2,4,6x5: add a ring/ double rep to the ladder. 2,4,6,8x3 is your new goal. Repeat the progression until you hit 2,4,6,8,10x5. Then increase the weight. Easy= hard-a double rep/'rung'. If you will do 2,4,6x3 on the hard day, do 2,4x3 not timed. Medium= hard-a set/ladder. So if the hard day will be 2,4,6,8x4 the medium day will be 2,4,6,8x3. Not timed. I add in 2x 3 height jumps and 3 sets of 2-3 long jumps. I do multiple jump variations. I often do a finisher after the light or medium workouts with short sprints, sled pulling or pushing, quasi explosive sled rows etc. Explosive pushups, rope climbing without legs or monkey bars or changing hand positions on a pull up bar or rings while hanging. Sometimes a few sets of Kettlebell swings, Kettlebell juggling etc. The stimulus is completely different from the slow strength block. It allows my body to recover and re-prime for the slow grinds, and the same for coming back to the explosive stuff. It seems to be working rather well for me. I seem to be progressing without plateauing. I've been doing this for a while now, been not so strict with my training lately, but I still keep making progress. This workout is a rough adaptation of Pavel Tsatsoulines workout from his (excellent) book 'return of the kettlebell' (I think it was that book, could have been another one from him).

3 weeks off is a little extreme like you said ten is perfect sweet spot. I be going hard for two weeks till I feel like I can’t work out by the second week then take a week maybe do some light exercise during the break nd by the time I get back to it I feel amazing

The more advanced You get the more intense iss your workout thus You have to rest more the particular muscle You working out for full recovery and hypertrophy.

It took me a decade to find out that I could get more muscle AND strength with more rest days. Before I thought one day break was more beneficial, that I had to keep the muscle active and under stress. Little did I know. Now I rest 2 or 3 days and making much more gains. BUT you have to make sure you eat and sleep right in those rest days. I'm surprisingly getting good gains on my legs even though I only lift them once a week. But I would say more than 5 days rest is a bit much. Also when you do lift, you have to lift as heavy as possible and increase weight every week.

My experience says training breaks work for strength training because it allows more time for CNS and your joints to recover and then you can get back to work. You can’t train if you get injured so breaks are needed

Just what I needed. Sometimes I have to stop myself from going to the gym. Oh gym, how I love you! Gonna focus on walking and yoga for my 10 days off. How often should I take 10 off? Once a month?

that's just awesome how did you learn all of this