Is this normal?

Question

i stopped doin bench pressing for about 5 days cause i was doing some work for my bro, which i got paid for, but anyways now i can barely do them. the bar seemed like it got 20 pounds heavier. all it was was a week. is this normal

Answer 1

That can happen at times but it would usually be more like 2 weeks. Now if you lifted every single day then yes this seems likely you see by lifting on a daily basis instead of building muscle you would be breaking it down and stopping for 5 days would let it catch up to your muscles which would be weaker from the excessive lifting.

Answer 2

Actually, no. You should actually be stronger because your glycogen level should have more of a chance to recover. However, is seems that the problem may be more related to lack of nutrition or sleep.

Missing so much as one meal (especially the day before the workout) can have a drastic effect on your athletic performance. This is because low glycogen levels is one of the triggers for the body to start breaking down muscle tissue which makes it impossible for muscles to grow. Also, low glycogen stores causes the body to inhibit glycolisis which is needed for any type of athletic activity.

Here are some links to info about the body's requirement for calories and about energy systems used during exercise.

http://spartafit.com/articles/requirement%20for%20calories.html
http://spartafit.com/articles/energy%20systems.html