Coming back after a bad fortnight without restarting from zero

Started 27 March 2025 · 17 replies · 184 hearts · read 3.2k times

BoWhitby, UK · 27 March 2025

1.3 years ago

Something I have been sitting with: Coming back after a bad fortnight without restarting from zero Not looking for advice so much as other people's experience.

The logistics of this are defeating me more than the medicine is.

Every piece of advice I read appears to have been written for somebody with a completely different week from mine, so I am asking people whose weeks look like this.

My household has adjusted to about half of this and the other half is causing small daily friction that I have not known how to raise.

The thing I have not been able to find anywhere is how people manage this when the week has no fixed shape at all.

Thank you. This circle has solved four practical problems for me already and I am hoping for a fifth.

BodilÅlesund, NO

I found the early weeks difficult for training because of the tiredness, and going lighter for a month was the sensible call.

RohanPune, IN

My honest report is that my strength has been maintained across two years, and it was not automatic, and lifting was the reason.

BaySt Ives, UK

What helped was working with a coach who took the appetite change seriously rather than treating it as a discipline problem.

RenFacilitatorBristol, UK

Speaking as a facilitator: the person who asked wanted company for a difficult week rather than a plan, and the thread has given both, in that order.

21me too 5

InêsPorto, PT

My sessions are shorter and heavier now and that has worked better than the volume I used to do.

NadineLyon, FR

Picking up Ren’s point rather than starting a new one.

What I would say is get the protein sorted before anything else. Everything I read agreed and I ignored it for a season.

ClemmieNorwich, UK

Inês has already said most of this and I want to add the one part that was different for me.

The recovery side was where I noticed it most. Same session, slower recovery, for about two months.

11me too 9

TressaSt Austell, UK

Holding this with you rather than answering it.

RunaAarhus, DK

Tressa has already said most of this and I want to add the one part that was different for me.

What surprised me was how much better my joints felt, which had nothing to do with anything I was aiming at.

PamSouthport, UK

#10

The competition side needed a proper conversation with somebody who understood both, and finding that person took a while.

8me too 4

RonanBelfast, NI

#11

I keep a very simple training log alongside everything else and the two together tell me more than either does alone.

BramGhent, BE

#12

This is the post I wish had existed when I was looking for it.

MaryamBirmingham, UK

#13

Building on what Bram wrote rather than answering the original question.

The advice I got that helped most was to prioritise consistency over intensity for the first three months, and it was correct.

8me too 1

ClémenceNantes, FR

#14

My coach and my prescriber have never spoken and I have relayed everything, and I would do that differently if I started again.

OndineLausanne, CH

#15

What I would say to anybody starting is do not stop lifting. That is the one thing everybody here agrees on.

RenFacilitatorBristol, UK

#16

Facilitator note: nothing in this circle is medical advice and the practical arrangements still need agreeing with whoever prescribes for you.

BertrandToulouse, FR

#17

Coming back at two years to say the strength held, the training is unchanged, and the fuelling took a season to get right and then became automatic.