Resting but everything still weak/sore

[JuliusPleaser]

Hey guys,

I decided to a diet break along with a gym break after 100 consecutive days cutting at a 20% deficit. I lost about 20 lbs so it was all good.

The last two weeks I decided to take off the gym; eating whatever I want, and gained a few lbs back, as expected, but mostly water. I wanted to take a break because I felt I needed to and also because my legs and elbows have been pretty sore at the; I was hitting push/pull/legs twice a week.

I haven't been out of the gym for 12 days, yet I don't feel refresh, even with the higher cals at 3000. My elbows are better but I feel like my muscles are aching. I did have a slight fever this week but this was happening earlier too. I Know I'm going to shrink or anything stupid like that, but this concerns me. I think I should be feeling amazing during this time off, but I feel blah.

Any clue whats going on?

[jackfrost88]

Sometimes your body just slacks with time off, especially if you've been a bit sick. Probably diverting all your energy to getting you better. What I've started to do with great positive results is doing deload weeks instead of a week off completely. You keep working out but at a MUCH lower intensity. That way you keep going through the motions, don't lose any flexibility and still give your body recovery time.

As an example, if your doing 4 sets of 10 @ 75% on bench for one day you would do 3 sets of 8 @ 60%. Your body still recovers without the blah feeling.

[PT1982]

Very common. I'll give you an example of something that happened to me years ago. I wanted to backpack the Appalachian Trail. I didn't, but i did 2 months. Every single day with a 50+ pound backpack. 10-15 mile a day average. I hurt so much the first week, then my body became accustomed to the load. Once it was over, for over a month I would have to wear my backpack around the house to get relief. I hurt so bad not using my gear because my body had become so used to it. Same as with training. That why I always tell people to take at least 2 days off a week. It's much more beneficial.