If you’re training to build strength, sooner or later you will need to deload. The aim of a training deload is to reduce the amount of training stress whilst preserving enough of a training stimulus that you still get results.
The combination of relatively heavy loads, big ranges of motion, and consistency will take its toll over time. This can manifest in tiredness, decreased strength performance, or in an overuse injury. However, if you deload too much then you can end up bored, and may even lose progress. Here are some pointers on making the most of your training deload.
Do I Really Need a Training Deload?
People are rightly concerned that taking a deload will disrupt training and lead to lost progress. In my opinion, that’s the biggest reason to plan a deload in advance! If your training deload is planned, you can control what the scale of the deload is and how long it lasts.
No one is too good, too strong, or too fit to take a deload every now and again. If you try to continuously train at 100%, then when you are forced to take a step back, it will need to be longer and more severe than if you had worked in a structured deload.
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
Benjamin Franklin, 1736
A training deload can also provide a break from the routine. While this may initially be frustrating, it’s worth remembering that absence makes the heart grow fonder. A well-timed deload week can leave you ready and raring to go for the next cycle of training.
Backing off your training can even give you the recovery you need to break through a training plateau.
When Should I Deload?
Short answer: At least every 4-12 weeks.
Long answer: Choosing how often to deload depends on a variety of factors, including other stressors in your life, training experience, and training intensity. Your deloads will need to be structured more frequently if you are frequently training at a high level. Some people will deload as often as once every four weeks, although this may be too frequent depending on your training. I would recommend a deload at least every 12 weeks.
How Should I Deload?
1. Reduce Your Training Volume
Reducing the amount of training you do has been well researched for its effects on tapering. Tapering is the act of reducing fatigue before a sporting competition. Like deloading, the tapering process aims to promote recovery without detraining and losing all of your gym progress. This means we can hopefully draw some parallels between the two.
A review of several tapering studies showed that reducing training volume by 41-60% for around 2 weeks, whilst maintaining intensity, will maximise performance in the weeks that follow. In my opinion, 2 weeks might be a bit much for a deload; we have to remember that tapering is focussed on helping an athlete recover and peak for a competition, whereas we’re just trying to boost recovery. 1 week should be fine unless you’re really in the tank.
In practice, this could involve reducing the number of sets you do from 4 to 2, whilst maintaining the same weight (intensity) as previous weeks.
2. Remove Fatiguing Exercises
This approach is not as well studied as reducing volume, but is widely accepted among powerlifters and Olympic weightlifters as a method that can boost recovery.
Not all exercises are created equally in terms of the demands they place on the body. Exercises where you move through a bigger range of motion, or produce very high efforts, or specific exercise types such as eccentric-focussed work, will all incur a larger debt in terms of your recovery compared to other exercises.
This leads to many powerlifters ditching their heavy deadlifts once a fortnight or once a month. Some Olympic weightlifters will stick to power snatches and power cleans in the week or two before a competition, thus avoiding catching weights in deep squat positions.
Granted, this is a slightly more anecdotal approach, but it is an efficient way of minimising disruption to the programme whilst also reducing a reasonable chunk of the workload. You could take a week to focus on easier variations of your key movements, or give your accessory exercises a little TLC.
Summary
People like to believe they’re too good to take a step back from training. As a result, they either neglect them entirely or fail to commit to one for even the shortest amount of time. If you’re reading this and you can’t remember when you last time you had a deload, this might be a sign that you should schedule one in.
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