Stronger after the break. I started lifting weights about 6 months ago as a complete beginner. Once a week I meet my trainer for a strength workout. On a few occasions I’ve had to miss a week or two, for different reasons. Every time I walked into the gym after weeks off, I was sure I lost all my progress and was starting again from scratch.
In reality, the opposite was true. Every workout I do after time off, I break personal records for weight lifted. My trainer tells me that unlike cardio, that’s how strength training works. When your muscles get time to fully recuperate, you come back stronger.
This is counterintuitive to a cardio type, so it surprises me every time. But rest precedes leaps in certain creative and professional endeavors, too. You come back stronger after a break.
A friend is considering taking a sabbatical from her job, and is weighing all the considerations: finances, healthcare, job market. She put out a list of questions to a bunch of us, and I wound up writing a little bit about my current, in-progress sabbatical.