my traiing needs to change for a few weeks, need advice

[Buddy_Christ]

since the semester is ending this week, this is the last week i'll be able to heavy lift for a month. next week during finals i'm not planning on lifting at all, except maybe for a good hard leg day. my entire upper body needs a break, but my legs are doing A-OK. hell, they're not getting enough work on 5x5. i'm afraid to let my legs take a lengthy break. i was forced to do this over xmas break and i suffered for it big time. between my girlfriend's work schedule and the kids, i'll barely be able to make time to hit the school's gym for legs. upper body...not a chance.

so my upper body is going to get a good week and a half to two weeks off. i have a weight set and a bench here at home, but it's not nearly enough for me to even do decent work sets for bench, deadlift, or squats. i might be able to go pick up 2 25lb plates to add to my collection, which if i can, then i'll be able to load up a total of 210lbs or so onto my bar (non-oly bar). if i can do that, then i can stop doing flat bench and switch to incline and i'll have enough weight to work with (i did 200lbs for 5x3 last week flat bench, i'm sure i'd have to drop to about 155 to start incline 5x5).

even if i can get a total of 210lbs that i can fit on the bar, my deadlift 5x5 last week was 215lbs. and if i can't make it to the gym to do legs, i'm uber-screwed because there's not a chance i'm going to get that 210lbs up over my head and onto my shoulders for sets of squats. that and my squat 5x5 last week was 225lbs.

so what can i do so i can at least maintain? i can always work on form, which i do my best to utillerize proper form at all times, but i'm sure everyone needs to re-emphasize this once in a while. i'm just real worried that i'm going to go backwards in my training. so i need some good input here.

suggestions appreciated. thanks everyone.

 

[Tom Treutlein]

Don't worry about maintaining, you won't lose much of anything in that time. Just lift with less weight and slightly higher reps for things like squats or deadlifts if you can't get into the gym. Set up two workouts. One for if you can get into the gym, and one if you can't. Substitute the weight for reps. You can maintain by lifting each bodypart once a week anyway, and keeping protein moderately high. Unless you're a giant (260+ lbs) you can maintain pretty damn easy.

 

[Buddy_Christ]

definetly not a giant at 5'6" and just over 170lbs.

i do want to drop some bodyfat in the next few weeks before i start bulking again.

i've been doing 5x5 since mid-january. my isolation lifts have all been 3 sets, increasing weight every set, 10, 8, 5-6 reps. i like that much better than 2 x 8-10. i've noticed it allows me to up my weight on those lifts more often.

so what type of rep scheme should i be looking at if i have to do lighter workouts?

 

[Tom Treutlein]

Well if you can have something heavy enough for 12-15 reps for smaller bodyparts and 8-12 for larger ones that'd be good. I mean, if you just want to maintain, 20 reps can even do that. Just do enough to stimulate the muscle. Either that, or do some new exercises and go back to your old ones when you get back to the gym, just to change things up and use exercises you're not particularly strong on right now so you'll have enough weight.

Or build an at-home powerrack. I have one.

 

[d3track]

take the time off
go for a walk, take the kids to the park

and study hard for finals

you'll be fresh and and ready to break down the door to the gym in 2 weeks