A Break?

I am going on a trip to Europe this summer from June 18th to July 7th.

I am debating on whether or not to take a break from my SCC workouts during this time.

I am doing this trip with a program so it will be fast paced and I cannot bring my rings with me and if I do workout it won't be consistent.

I have only heard good things from taking an extra few days off to rest, but I am afraid that I may loose strength if I take a seemingly long break like this.

What do you guys think?

At home, I've figured out I can use two stools for dipping and as parallettes. There is a hole in the garage that leads to the attic that I can hang from and do pullups and front lever ( but can't get into BL ).

I literally don't even have a stick at home so I used a bike tube and stretched it out as a stick for shoulder stuff and the Burgener Warmup. It was a decent workout on Friday and I probably will have to do something similar ( the gym is locked today ) tonight. I did HeS presses on my futon and HSPU on the wall besides deck squats and pistols. I could probably go running or use the park across the street for some stuff, too.

You could just do whatever kind of workouts in that time frame and begin your cycle when you get back.

yea thats what I was thinking Blairbob.

I am just curious tho, have you ever taken a long break without physical activity and experienced a decrease in strength (how long was it)?

thx for the reply,

-kombat

Because shoulder problems, i stopped everything altogether for 2 weeks. When i started again, i felt a little weak, but after like a day i was back to my usual strength. I think it takes like 2 weeks to a month to start noticing much, if anything.

Even if you can't do your regular routine, just do pushups and stuff how Blairbob suggested, just to keep yourself in a routine and motivated. That's whats the most important. If you don't train for a long time, your will to train diminishes slowly...

the other day i noticed during dips, 5 was actually tough. This was after the statics stuff but seriously 5? I've stayed away from dipping probably over a month though because of allowing my chest to heal. Especially weird since I did 23 the other day whereas sets of 5 were tough.

probably over the course of late fall 07 and spring 08 I got really out of shape because of some life stuff and not working out very regularly ( 1-2x a week ). besides gaining weight, i had severely lost a lot of competency with BW strength, especially upper body but also just strength/power and definitely endurance.

I was probably around half a dozen pullups in spring and lost the ability to press BW. my upper body strength just dwindled but leg and core strength was ok, diminished but not as much as upper body probably due to the fact of what muscles I had to use during the day.

You could try finding a gym during your vacation

I took a month long break from dips and declined my max reps by like 20%. Two weeks was vacation, and the next two weeks was due to fear from golfer's elbow. Pressing movements don't hurt my elbow, so I've started retraining. It comes back fast, though. I set a PR once after a 3 week layoff, followed by two weeks of retraining.

Well, I guess two weeks is the longest break one should take if the don't want a decrease in strength. Although it is really dependent on how hard you worked and how much recovery your body actually needs to make your gains in strength solid.

I find knowing how long and when to recover the most elusive thing in gymnastic training.

I suspose you just have to listen to your body.

if you stop exercising your resting cortisol levels increase and your body will begin to break down muscle... this will occur after about a a few days off (the number varies... i've seen anywhere from 3-7days)... however, the majority of strength lost in the first 8 weeks of detraining is neuromuscular... this is the first strength gained and lost... it is why when you come back from a break you feel your strength increase in leeps and bounds... it is also very important to any skill move... so you will see greater loses on handstands than bench press because there is a higher degree of neuromuscular coordination... exercising once a week can prevent the lose and maintain current abilities... at least in the studies i've read... the problem with the studies is that they tend to use standard weight lifting protocols... they require less activation in the motor cortex... i would love to see a study conducted with gymnastic style training that requires a higher degree off stabilization...

oh and as a side note... visualization has been shown to invoke similar changes in activation patterns as exercise... so if you can't exercise... just thinking about the movements may help... but most important enjoy your trip... the gym will be waiting for you when you get back...

I've lost strength on once a week, not much, but it is noticeable if you are a nitpick. I think Zatsiorsky, and other research suggests 2x a week. I have yet to utlize 2x a week for those purposes, but I'm sure it is better than 1x.

I always thought that the guy who trains with more volume, intensity, and time has to take more of a break than the guy who does less so that his muscles are given enough time to repair themselves.

I back this up with no evidence tho.