How many of y’all are intentional about taking a full week completely off of lifting?

Seems like I go on vacation or out of town every 3 months or so which I'll consider my deload. I don't ever feel stronger but that's probably because I spent the week binge drinking and eating out

An intentional week off completely is rare. I'm currently doing the original 5/3/1 program so it has a deload week every 4th week, but that's not the same thing as being completely off. Usually if I do nothing for a week something is wrong in my head. I always try to be doing something.

I think the reason most people don't intentionally do nothing for a week is because life is so good at introducing unplanned and unspecified time periods where we can't lift/train. It comes in the form of a broken down cars, tornado rips the roof off your garage gym, wedding season, family reunion, the "holidays", a surprise business trip, a surprise pregnancy, friend's cancer diagnosis, dad dies, etc. There's always something that comes up. When life is so good at forcing us into a break, it feels less necessary to plan breaks.

Of course, you can't rely on random or planned events to provide breaks, which is why I still plan breaks into my yearly schedule that I put together towards the end of each year, but I almost never take breaks during those exact planned breaks. I don't think I've ever adhered to my planned yearly schedule more than 50-60%, but what's important to me is that I don't just put myself on auto-pilot all year and just go through the motions, or go about thinking I'll go all out, all year long, and that will be just fine(it was fine when I was younger, it is NOT fine now that I'm 45), as long as my body gets the rest I need it to get and I can prove to myself that I'm progressing towards my goals at any given time, I know Training vs Rest/Recovery balance is correct.

I hear ya, I'm a big advocate of modification. Just change things up until you find something that you like and works for you. In the end, it's all about how you feel and finding successful methods to progress towards your goals. A decade ago I just couldn't do this "every 4th week is a deload" schedule, it felt like an obstacle to progress. To me, I was just getting going at week #4, so I just modified the schedule and I trained for 7 weeks and deloaded on the 8th week. It worked great. Everything is modifiable.

As I've gotten older I've come to like more frequent deloads, but I'm not saying there's a link between the two, it's just what I like now. However, I'd rather just lift a little on my time off, as opposed to doing just cardio, maybe I'll try doing stuff I never regularly do in my training. That is refreshing. Kettlebells only, sandbags, rucking/PT workouts, etc. It generally makes me appreciate the barbell training again in a reignited way and serves as a little reset.

Every 5th or 6th week if lifting 6 d/wk or 5 d/wk, respectively. I try to schedule a deep tissue massage and get 15k steps/d during that week, and I will add time if my body doesn't feel 90% or better.

As I age, that rest gets more and more beneficial.

Sounds nice, but I think I'd go crazy mentally. I need that time to zone out, and release energy. I run 3-4 miles twice a week - maybe I could incorporate more mileage to break from lifting.

I’m sure it makes your gym owner happier. Planet fitness depends on people that pay and don’t go

By nature of being a woman and my cycle, I take off 3-4 days once a month when my estrogen is at its lowest. And I always feel amazing and end up with gains when I return from that break.

Weirdly enough, I've managed a pretty good pump in my lats for a deload week.