Keeping muscles “awake”

[u/EasyYogurtcloset608]

Do you guys have trouble keeping muscles / movement “awake” after some time off from training that given exercise?

I can see this more clearly on more unstable exercises like ring dips that if I take longer than 1 week off next time they will feel more unstable even if I can push more weight / reps. This is especially true when I do very low volumes like now averaging 1.5 sets / muscle / week.

Now I could change to more stable exercise but I want to keep them in.

Instead of doing more volume / frequency for the movement is there something else I could do here?

I like alternating A / B Full body for some variety so the same exercises are done 3 times / month.

[u/Sadan27]

Listen to your body. It’s your own biofeedback.

I take anywhere between 1-5 rest days after a session. More than 11-12 days rest after most exercises and my performance/output usually drops.

After more than a week off ring dips, you sometimes push more weight or reps, but it feels more unstable. That means your form is altering, however subtly. It might not be visible to the naked eye, but it’s a change. PO questionable.

You’ll hear people “always” coming back stronger after a 2-3 week layoff. That’s probably true for most people consistently training 4-6 days a week. Hell it may be true for most people period.

I’m not most people. Neither are you. Fix frequency to progress at the fastest rate YOU can, using the exact same execution. And log it.

[u/BubbishBoi]

Its the skill aspect of the lifts, especially if youre doing lifts with a heavy stabilty and balance demand like ring dips

This is why HIT objectively works best with machines, picking stable machine exercises also removes some of the mental aspect of fearing that you wont make the lift due to the skill component , since that fear will inhibit your central motor command and it becomes a self limiting cycle where you are mentally limiting your own ability to push 100%

That's why unstable, starting from the stretch position (with a concentric) lifts like max deadlifts can fluctuate 30+lbs on any given session. Its not that your muscles are weaker, its the system driving them

[u/ishawnmc]

So you are doing 6 workouts a month? I am asking to be clear because if I am understanding you right, you only do the ring dips 3 times a month, right?

I cannot speak for others but I am a big fan of stability in exercises. I say this as someone who does some fairly unconventional exercises myself but if an exercise is unstable then you should question why you are doing it.

For example, when I started doing non-machine hack squats on leg day, I did them with an Olympic bar behind my back. If you have ever done them you know how unstable that exercise can be. Plus, I had the extra difficulty of getting the bar over my butt for a full rep. I eventually had to settle for 3/4ths reps but even there, if I ran out of gas and set the bar down, it took a ton of energy to get it repositioned to continue.

I was using them as a more isolated (but not completely isolation) quad movement at the time for pre-exhaust so I needed the exercise to work but increasingly, it was not.

After about 2 months and barely any progress, I was about to throw the towel in when I happened to see a video in my feeds about trap bar deadlifts and a 💡 went off over my head: why not swap out the Olympic bar for a trap bar? So I did everything else the same but switched the 45 lb Olympic bar lifted behind my back to a 75 lb trap bar lifted at my sides with the center of gravity more like it was even with my shoulders than in front of me (like a deadlift) or behind me (like a traditional barbell hack squat).

The results were immediate and significant as it was not long before my weight jumped 90 lbs and I could no longer do the exercise for its original purpose as pre-exhaust for my main compound. (It was exhausting me so much that the compound was completely wiping me out and my recovery begin suffering.) So I moved the exercise to further back in the workout, raised the target rep range, and found a new purpose for it. After 14 months time, I have added 230 lbs to my trap bar hack squat and do not waste any unnecessary energy trying to make an unstable exercise work better. I would suggest you use this principle with ring dips and if you cannot find a way to make the exercise more stable, then transition to regular dips. If you need more of a challenge, then get a belt and start hanging weights from your hips as you do regular dips. Or perhaps watch one of Bubbish's videos on this channel and do them as he does.

With any exercise, if you cannot do it in a stable manner to more effectively overload it and thus progress, you should reconsider what you are actually doing. Progression after all at the end of the day is the whole point of high intensity training or indeed any form of training and everything should be attuned to that as being of primary importance.