I was thinking about it the other day; If you can help it, don't take time off from training. Do 15 minutes of something. Squat and leave, press and leave, deadlift and leave. "Getting back into it," is a pain and sometimes it never happens. I have a doctor friend who is as busy as anyone that I have ever known, travelling to Africa, writing grants, but he gets it done; short intense workouts. You have time, you big baby.
Everybody wants to "Go lighter and work on form." But the problem is that form is totally different with heavier weights. So the answer is to keep the reps low and the sets high in number. Do 10 sets of 3-5, not 3-5 sets of 10. And you can then train in the 75%-85% range and learn more effectively. In the Clean, do a bunch of singles. Everyone can squat perfectly straight up and down with 135, while doing it with 635 is a different matter.
Training with weights is damn fun. It's so rewarding. When someone gets really strong, no task is too much for them to undertake. Man, to be strong is what it is all about! Picking up stuff, carrying stuff, having confidence, elevating confidence, the feeling after a great work out, you just feel different. It is the best.
When trying to get your bench press up, it seems that alternating Marathon days with heavy days of doubles and triples and even sometimes singles works real well. So a typical Monday/Thursday would look like this here(in percentages)- Day 1- 60x5 70x4 75x4 80 2x3 85 2x2 80x3 75x4 70x5 65x8 60x10 55x12-15 Day 2- 80x2 85x2 90x1, and go back through that 3 times. Then you change up the % some, but just give it some variation- like this- Day 1- 60x6 65x6 70 2x4 75 3x4 80 5x2 70x7 Day 2- 85% 5x3. And you go to 90-95% every once in awhile, and then hit a new max in 6-8 weeks. I believe that if you have never done that type of routine, then you can hit a significantly new max in 4 weeks.
Also- on one of the days add close grips in for 75-80% for 6x4 or 4x6. On the other day, work up to a heavy triple or set of 5 on the barbell incline. Seated press or seated behind the neck press is great also, and a few sets of triceps extension and/or dips should round the program off nicely.
And don't forget to vary your training- it doesn't have to be exercise changes, but it should be intensity(percentages). Some days go in there and do 10x10 at 50-60% and some days go in there and do 20x2 at 80%.
