Return to load after travel, illness, or downtime

• Owner: Strength specialist
• Date added: 2026-04-21
• Last reviewed: 2026-04-21

Summary

Re-entry is its own phase. The first goal is not progression. The first goal is restored tolerance.

Re-entry rules

• bias simple patterns
• reduce total sets and novelty
• cap effort conservatively
• control soreness cost
• protect the next key bike sessions

Session types

• movement-quality only when readiness is fragile
• reduced-load strength when tolerance is returning
• maintenance work before full progression

Decision rule

Do not resume normal loading until execution quality, next-day response, and bike-session tolerance are clearly stable.