Weight Lifting Breaks
Planned weightlifting breaks are required!

Weight Lifting Breaks MUST occur to give your body the time it needs to recover from a long period of workouts. Usually, a weight lifting program should have planned breaks after anywhere from 6-12 weeks.


For example, after completing 3 tough workouts a week for 10 weeks, a program recommends you take a break from lifting weights for 7-10 days. In this example, this is a good weight lifting program that recognizes that one's body cannot take the pounding for greater than 10 weeks. The former is just an example.


Breaks from weight lifting will ensure that you can continue building muscle even with lighter weights after you come off an extended break from lifting. If you've been lifting weights for a while, you'll know that it's sometimes very hard to get any stronger on certain exercises. Well, weight lifting breaks can help you to start back at a lower weight and then blow right past your previous best several weeks later.

If your weight lifting program doesn't recognize that your body needs an extended break at some point in time, you will either need to get a new program such as the WLC Program or you'll need to add in your own planned breaks. You can plan a break any time that you want, but the most important factor in taking a break is you and how well you can judge your body's needs!


You must know your body, and you must take a weightlifting break earlier than a planned break if needed. For example, I learned that I usually needed a break after around 7 weeks on the workout programs I have used in the past even though the plan says to take a break after 8 weeks. I have lasted longer on some programs, but I now play it safe and take the break just so I do not reach the edge of overtraining. It is better to take the break than overtrain.


The WLC Program gives you the flexibility in one of the final weeks to make that decision, provides you with guidelines to help you make the decision, and tapers your workload down so that overtraining never sets in!

Now that I am on the WLC Program I can last much longer on each weight lifting cycle and easily reach the 12 week target without overtraining. The WLC program is designed to keep overtraining away. WLC provides more time for progression and more results. Continuous progression over the weeks, months, and years leads to real results that other programs can't compare to!


The WLC program uses planned breaks on purpose so that your body becomes unaccustomed to the weight loads you were using before you took the weight lifting break. This deconditioning of your body will allow your muscles to become unaccustomed to large loads of weight.


When you go back to lifting weights again after your weightlifting break, your muscles will grow with a smaller amount of weight. They will grow because you are applying a load that they are not accustomed to. You'll eventually lift more than you've ever lifted before for each and every rep range on WLC. And along with these strength gains, you'll build muscle!

With WLC, your muscles get to catch up usually on the first week of each rep range due to the decreased load in weight. They must work harder though because of the increase in volume from 1 set to 2 sets. So, your muscles are given a break in the amount of weight that must be lifted, but the total work done is going to be greater.


When they finally get used to the increased work and decreased weight load, we hit them hard with heavier weights than ever before, but we decrease the total amount of work. The true growth begins when we start increasing the weight!


Every major muscle group throughout your body never becomes accustomed to the patterns on WLC and will never catch up until you go on your weight lifting break. You will build muscle throughout the WLC Program because your muscles never become accustomed to the work and load!

Usually weight lifting breaks last anywhere from around a week to two weeks. The more cumulative fatigue on your body, the longer the planned break must be in order for your body to fully recover. If you go too long without a break while working your body hard, you will overtrain and your body will end up shutting down on you if you continue to overtrain. If you go this far, you will need an even longer break than 14 days. You'll have no choice but to take a break.


You will learn your body after a few cycles if you are a beginner. Most intermediate to advanced weight lifters know when to take a weightlifting break. You will learn. And it may be the hard way. I learned the hard way, but the WLC Program will help you learn your body much better than other programs that simply push you to your limit each and every workout. If you've used other weight lifting programs before, you'll be absolutely amazed at the progress you'll make on the WLC Program.


Weight lifting breaks on the WLC Program take place during the WLC Reset Period. WLC Program Reset lasts anywhere from 9 to 14 days. A reset must be done before anyone starts the WLC Program. You will get maximum results by resetting before starting the WLC Program.

If you need help with anything related to weight lifting including weight lifting breaks, planned breaks, the WLC Program, and pretty much anything you can think of, please don't hesitate to join WLC Space for free! I will personally answer any questions you might have and help you along the way.


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