Deload Weeks
You will likely be surprised to read this – but you aren’t actually getting stronger, or more powerful, or quicker, when you are training. You are actually gaining improvement in physical abilities in-between training sessions or training periods. In other words, it is during your recovery periods, when the actual changes within your body are occurring, that the adaptions needed for improved performance will occur. The training sessions when the hard work is being done, are merely the stimulus – which will then stimulate the adaptions during recovery. This improvement is known as super-compensation. In its simplest terms what this means is this;
- You lift a certain weight until you cant lift anymore, session over.
- Your body is damaged by this ‘abuse’ and responds with a range of physiological adaptions so that it will be able to better ‘tolerate’ or ‘survive’ such a stress again in the future (a survival mechanism.)
- Next session you are now able to lift more weight and/or reps.
A very simplistic description of a very complex process within the body sure, but you get the idea. Create a stimulus (training) and you get a response (super-compensation during recovery.) Of course there are a whole range of forms of this super-compensation, and they will depend on what training stimulus you subjected your body to. But why are we going over this?
In short, this basic understanding of the fact that the actual physiological improvement in performance occurs when you allow your body to properly recover, will mean that you are more likely to accept the need for deload weeks. Most guys have a hard time backing it off with training, under the belief that it will hinder progress, however it is essential, particularly the more advanced your training is or the the closer you are getting to your genetic potential.
In its simplest terms, a deload week is a reduction in training. A simple way of thinking about this concept is to think about another training principle that you are likely already aware of – tapering. Sports teams and individual athletes will ramp up their training, and then as they approach the particular competition or season that they are training for, they will taper (or back off the training) in order to allow for a fuller recovery, and therefore better cash in on the benefits of super-compensation. This is also a popular way for top sides to approach finals – ramp up the training in the later rounds of the season, before tapering before finals.
So deload weeks are an application of this same sort of principle – only they are applied regularly to training. In other words you train hard, moving as much weight, or as many repetitions, or with as much speed (depending on the stage of the year and your goals), for a number of weeks, and then you follow this with a week that is far less intense. Ok, but what exactly does this less intense week look like? And how often should they be?
For starters, what deload weeks most certainly AREN’T, are weeks of total rest where you don’t do any strength training. When performing a deload week, you should still be performing each individual exercise that you are currently working on in a particular period, however you will just reduce the amount of it. The exact nature of this reduction will also depend on how you are currently training.
So lets say you are currently performing the following exercises on Monday;
Squats – 4 x 10 @ 50kg
Walking Lunges 4 x 10 @ 30kg
Bench Press 4 x 8 @ 45kg
With these sorts of sets and reps, you would be in more of a ‘volume’ and/ or base building phase (as opposed to heavier strength and/or power phase.) As a result, a deload week during such a phase would mean mainly a reduction in the number of sets, and only a slight reduction in the weight being used. So a delaod week still performing all these exercises as required, would look something like this;
Squats – 2 x 10 @ 40kg
Walking Lunges 2 x 10 @ 25kg
Bench Press 2 x 8 @ 35kg
Half the sets, and a few less kg is a good general starting point for how to deload such a week. But what about if you are going thorough a period of heavier weights and less reps, and are more focused on maximal strength. Based on this, your current exercises would look something like this;
Squats – 5 x 5 @ 80kg
Walking Lunges 4 x 8 @ 40kg
Bench Press 5 x 5 @ 65kg
A deload week under these circumstances would also see a reduction in sets, however would see a greater reduction in the weight being moved;
Squats – 2-3 x 5 @ 40kg
Walking Lunges 2 x 8 @ 25kg
Bench Press 2-3 x 5 @ 35-40kg
So again, a reduction is the number of sets to slightly more than half on the heavier exercises, however a reduction in weight by around 50%. This may sound like a lot, but it is coming after several weeks of hard and heavy training, your body needs a break – and this active recovery will allow for it, and the all-important super-compensation. The idea is that the following week or 2 after this delaod week, you are now lifting even more, thanks to this deload week and the resulting super-compensation.
I must say, the numbers and exercises used are just purely a demonstration to illustrate this concept. The exact sets and reps and weights you are using will all be different for each person reading this. Furthermore, how exactly you choose to deload (in terms of what percentage of weight, or how many sets) will also depend on how advanced you are, what exercises you are actually doing, and of course how you are currently feeling physically. However, ensure that when you do have a deload week, it is actually a proper deload week. Reducing your deadlift from 150kg to 145kg, or reducing your total number of work sets in a session from 22 sets to 20, aren’t deloading. Have the discipline to do it properly – you will improve as a result.
And one more thing….you are likely wondering how often are we supposed to throw in a deload week? The most commonly prescribed model out there is 3 full training weeks, followed by 1 deload week – so a deload week every 4th week. There are even athletes out there who deload every 3rd week – however these are athletes operating at a very advanced level and very close to their genetic potential. And generally speaking, the more advanced you are, and the heavier or more explosive you are lifting, the more often deload weeks will need to be. As an absolute beginner, who is performing the 2 strength sessions per week, you could go your first couple months without needing a deload week in reality – however even for beginners, it is just a good habit to get into, to throw in that deload week every 5th or 6th week. So as a general guideline, every 4th week is a good approximation, however if you are a relative beginner, or the training you are doing isn’t on the more advanced side of the scale, slightly more spaced out deload weeks (5th or 6th weeks) are fine.
Lets end the discussion there and not let this be more technical than it needs to be – throw in active recovery weeks, in order to recover and to get better.
Strength Coach
