When we talk about training, the term often used is progress. Making progress in training is the ultimate goal of a well-structured training program. When we train, we always want to take a step forward in each session by increasing weight, reps, or intensity. That is how we make progress.
However, sometimes, taking a few steps back can help us leap further. By this, we mean taking a deload week. Deload week helps us in many ways, both mentally and physically, so that our inherent fire for training ignites more brightly.
In this article, we will explain everything you need to know about a deload week so that you know when to take small steps back to jump the furthest.
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What is a deload week?
A deload week is when you intentionally reduce the training intensity by reducing the volume or weight. Typically, you lower your working weight to at least 25% to 50% on a deload week and also can reduce the number of sets.
At this time, you give your body some rest by not pushing it hard to get out of the fatigue generated over time from hard training. The basic principle of hypertrophy progression is progressive overload. To progress, you need to make your exercise harder by adding a small amount of weight, increasing sets and reps, or using any other method that increases the intensity. However, if you keep pushing your body to its limit month after month, at some point, you will face systemic fatigue.
Systemic fatigue also occurs in your nervous system, and at that time, your training starts to break down, or you start losing motivation. At that time, deload week helps by providing rest to your nervous system and body so your body gets what we call the reload that it requires.
When to take a deload?
There is no fixed answer for this. We cannot say that you should deload after ‘X’ months or weeks.
However, it is relatively easy to understand whether you need a deload by listening to your body. When your body is overly fatigued, it will show you some signs.
· Hitting Plateau
If you push your body hard at some point, you will see that you have hit a plateau. It means that at some point; you will see that you cannot progress in your exercises. You cannot progress in your lifts or do more reps. From there, your performance usually starts to go downhill due to high systemic fatigue that grows over time. If you cannot progress over two weeks or your performance starts decreasing, then it is ideal to take a deload week.
· Extensive Soreness
It is usual to generate soreness after a hard training session; after some recovery, your body will get rid of the soreness. Usually, after 2 or 3 days, the soreness minimizes as the body recovers or heals the muscles.
When intense training is performed for an extended period of time, your body will not be recovering as it should be, and your muscles will be sore even after 3 days. Prolonged, intense training sometimes hampers the recovery process, as systemic fatigue increases, slowing down the recovery process.
· Disruptive Sleep
When your fatigue level is very high, it demotivates you, and your body wants more rest. Sometimes, you may feel a lack of appetite. Systematic fatigue also generates mental fatigue, which affects the sleep cycle and makes recovery hard.
Does that mean we should not train hard? You should always train with intensity, but you also need to listen to your body. When your body requires time for recovery, you should provide it with it rather than going all out with it. Do not get fixated on the fact that I do not need a rest mentality, as it will cause backward progression rather than forward progression.
The benefits of a deload week
A deloading week can refresh both your mind and body. Also, it provides a new motivation towards progress that goes rusty when you push your body hard for some time. A deloading week will escalate your performance. The benefits of a deload week are:
Improved Muscle Recovery: When you deload by performing a less intense workout, your body gets enough time to recover as it will not generate fatigue like before. Your nervous system will refresh, which will also decrease your systematic fatigue. Your sleep quality will return to normal or even improve as your body and mind relax.
You will feel fresher and motivated to push even harder after your deloading week.
Exercise Form Improvement: When you keep pushing hard, your form eventually gets compromised as you tend to focus more on completing the exercise than maintaining a strict form.
A deloading week helps you get back on track. As you perform less intensely, you should focus more on improving your posture and exercise form at that point in time so that when you return to intense training, you will not compromise the form of the exercise.
Mitigating the risk of injury: When your systemic fatigue level is too high, the chances of injury double. As your muscles have not recovered enough, there is a high chance that you may face an injury.
If you follow bodybuilding, you will see that before any major competition, bodybuilders take a deload week, during which they train with light weights. There are two reasons for doing that. One is that they are low on calories at that time, and the second is that they give their muscles some rest after an intense training period so that they do not get injured before the competition.
How can a deload week help with progression?
There is a misconception that the muscles grow when they are trained. The reality is that muscles get stimuli to grow from training, but the growth occurs when your muscles are resting.
If your body does not get enough rest and nutrition, it will not grow, no matter how hard you train. Many people pinpoint their nutrition and go all out on training but are unable to grow because they sleep inadequately.
Dr. Mike Israetel (PhD in Sports Physiology, Lehman College) stated, “He used to train really hard with his partner in his early training days but did not see much progress as they were not sleeping adequately. Once he started giving his body adequate sleep, the progress boomed.”
When you take a deload week, you allow your body to reset from the fatigue generated. It does not matter how sharp a knife is; if you continuously use it for way too long, then the sharpness will get dull at some point. The same goes for our bodies as well. A deloading week works like sharpening a dull knife, but in this case, it is our body.
Proper recovery through less intense exercise and good nutrition will help you progress further after a deloading week.
We hope we can explain the importance of a deloading week as simply as possible. If you have any questions, please email us.