When is resting become a weakness?

[honestdude10]

so this is a question to people that work out a lot, so we all know that every once in a while (every 2 or 3 months) we should rest our whole bodies for a while like a week or 10 days but when does the rest start making you weaker for example when I went on vacation I didn't work out for 3 or 4 weeks and when I came back I was so weak I was benching 50 less curling 30 less etc so when does rest start making you weaker instead of recovery

[MrEM4N]

Rest doesn't have to mean you stop working out. It can also be lowering your intensity and giving your muscles time to recuperate. For example, instead of doing your drop sets till muscle exhaustion lower your weights and do enough to feel a burn than stop and taking longer rests in-between sets. You keep your muscles conditioned for exertion but you aren't completely breaking down the fibers. My rule of thumb is rest 72 hours between working out the same muscle but keep your intensity high while you do work it out. During any given week I'll have a day of pushing exercises (bench, incline bench, push ups etc.), a day of legs (squats, lunges etc.) and a day of pulling exercises (seated row, pull ups, curls for isolation) and then usally on Tuesdays, Thursdays or weekends if I don't feel up to it during the week I'll do high intensity interval training/ cardio. These will be your swimming, running, spin class, cross fit days. Then about every 60-90 days I'll do a rest week where I'll do a lot of running and low intensity lifting. Once the rest period is over I'll switch up the work outs I was doing during the previous 60 day period and do different ones to prevent plateauing. Like dumbbell instead of barbells or body weight workouts instead of weights.

[martyfellow]

I'd say a week's rest is plenty unless you ahve an injury. AFter that, you'll start losing strength, but maybe you're gaining something else.

[NerdInDenial]

A week is more than enough. You should work out during that week but at a lighter pace.

[OneLove404]

2 or 3 months! Its like 1 or 2 times a week!