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My last resistance working day was 14 days back. And at that time, I was doing 8 rep max weights for all exercises, rep in reserve 1 to 2. So after these two weeks of zero exercise, how should I restart my resistance training today? Today I plan to do upper body day. How much weight, what percentage weight should be used? What should be the rep in reserve and how many sets? I usually do 10 sets per muscle group per week, which means 5 sets per session for one muscle group.

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detraining muscle strength loss two weeks return to training recommendations

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resistance training restart after break sets reps weight progression

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GradeResponse
Good plan to ease back in today. After only 14 days off, strength loss is usually small, but tolerance to volume and near-failure effort drops more than pure strength. So restart with a short re-ramp for 1 week.

What to do today (upper body)

Use your previous 8RM loads as the reference.
  • Load: start at 80 to 85% of your previous 8RM weight
  • Reps in reserve (RIR): keep 3 to 4 RIR on all work sets today
  • Sets: do about 60 to 70% of normal volume
    • You usually do 5 sets per muscle per session
    • Today do 3 sets per muscle group (main compounds), optional 2 to 3 sets for smaller isolation muscles if you feel fresh

Practical example

If your previous 8RM bench was 80 kg:
  • Restart set load: about 64 to 68 kg
  • Stop each set with 3 to 4 reps left in tank
  • Do 3 work sets instead of 5

Progression over next sessions

  • Session 1 (today): 80 to 85% load, 3 to 4 RIR, 60 to 70% sets
  • Session 2: 85 to 90% load, 2 to 3 RIR, ~80 to 90% sets
  • Session 3: 90 to 95% load, 1 to 2 RIR, back to normal sets
  • Session 4+: resume normal training if recovery is good

Readiness rules (important)

During workout and next 24 to 48h:
  • If performance drops >2 reps set-to-set, or form degrades, reduce load 5 to 10%
  • If soreness is severe or joints feel irritated, keep same load next session instead of progressing
  • Avoid true failure on compounds in first week back
If you want, I can map this to your exact upper-body exercise list with set-by-set loads.
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