What Is A ‘Deload’ Week And Why Do You Need One?
So you’re looking at your programming and see the term “deload week” but maybe you’re not sure what it means? A deload is a period of time, typically a week, where you reduce your workout intensity or volume. The purpose of this week is to give the body some much-needed rest and recovery time without completely stopping exercise. Here’s why these deload weeks are crucial for making progress at the gym.
In order to grow stronger and make progress towards your fitness goals, you have to break your body down and then allow yourself to recover and build back up. The recovery is the most important but overlooked aspect of seeing real results from your workouts. You can workout all the time, but if your body never ha a chance to heal itself, it will hinder the results you see from the work you put in.
When you regularly hit the gym, your body undergoes a lot of physical stress. Over time, this can lead to accumulated fatigue, which can negatively impact your performance, stall your progress, and increase your risk of injury. A deload week is designed to prevent this. It’s a week where you purposefully decrease the intensity, volume, or frequency of your workouts to allow your body to rest, adapt, and grow.
Some additional benefits of a deload week:
- Prevents lifting plateaus: Have you ever felt stuck in your fitness journey? Maybe you have a goal for your back squat, but you can’t get pass a certain weight. Or maybe you’ve been training hard and killing your workouts, but you feel stagnant. These are signs you’ve hit a plateau, and one of the best ways to get over the hump is by taking a deload week. Mix things up and give your body a break from your normal routine. Allow yourself to adapt, and come back better than before.
- Reduces Risk of Injury: Often, we think more equals better. More volume, more intensity, more workouts. And while you need to push yourself beyond your comfort zone in order to get better, sometimes less actually does equal more. Consistently lifting heavy weights and giving max effort during your workouts is great, but over time it can wear on your body. Taking a few days to lower the weight, decrease the volume or take the intensity down some can help prevent injuries that would normally result from overtraining.
- Mental Refresh: It’s common to get hooked on all of the physical benefits of a deload week given the emphasis on physical improvement with fitness. But the mental benefits are just as important. A good deload week can provide the mental break you need and serve as a perfect reset to get you back motivated and focused when you return to your regular training intensity.
How To Implement A Deload Week?
If you’re following a program that hasn’t directly outlined a deload week in the training, here’s a few tip to add one in on your own:
1. Reduce Intensity or Volume: You can lower the weight you use, decrease the number sets or rounds, drop the total number of reps in each set/round or decrease the frequency of workout days that week.
2. Maintain Proper Form: While deloading, it’s still important to practice good form on eerie exercise. Just because the intensity is lower doesn’t mean the risk of potential injury isn’t there. Perform each rep like any other training session.
3. Listen to Your Body: The frequency of deload weeks will depend on your body and training intensity. Some may need a deload more often than others. Listen to your body and adjust accordingly.
4. Stay Active: A deload week does not mean complete rest. Take this time to engage in light activities like extra stretching and mobility work, yoga and walking to stay activ while giing your body a break from intense workouts.
Remember, a deload week is an essential part of a balanced training program. It’s not a sign of weakness or laziness, but a smart strategy to enhance performance, progress, and longevity in the gym.
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