Deloads: The Complete Guide

This is going to sound very controversial if you’ve been paying attention to my previous
written work on de-loads. In short, I was recommending a de-load per every 3-11 weeks of
hard consistent overloading training (typically de-loading on the 4th-7th week) so that one
can dissipate any lingering fatigue and continue training hard and allow progressive overload.
The idea is similar to that of a taper; once fatigue is basically all gone, you will be at your
strongest ever (since you can’t get gains without accumulating fatigue and so once the fatigue
is gone, your new strength levels can really shine).

But before we get too ahead ourselves, let us define de-loads for new readers.

WHAT ARE DE-LOADS?

So deload is a period of time (typically 1 training week in length) where training is reduced in
some way. Typically volume (total sets) is reduced by 33-50%, weight on the bar is reduced
by around 5-10%, and subsequently you are left with workouts with fewer sets with slightly
less weight which means each set will be a little further from failure than normal. So if last
week your bench workout was 225lbs for 3 sets of 5 and you were de-loading this week, you
might do 210lbs for 2 sets of 5. So maybe originally you were training with 1-RIR (1 rep in
reserve), but now you might be 3-RIR (3 reps in reserve). This is the best approach. The
volume reduction will help dissipate fatigue quickly while the lower weight will give you a
mental break as well as staying a bit shy-er of failure.

Now you may be asking why not just take a week off? You could, if life is busy, or you’re on
vacation, or if you’re fed up with the gym and need some time away to mentally recharge or
something (although a de-load can help with this as well). Just keep in mind that zero
resistance training will de-train you and so expect to be really sore the days following when
you come back and train a muscle again. This delayed time to recover can interfere with
subsequent workouts and it is just a pain in general. So it’s best to take it a bit easy the first
week if you did take a week off to minimize perceived soreness and muscle damage.
Fortunately, it takes 2-4 weeks of zero training to experience muscle losses and losses in
strength and voluntary activation takes even longer. So while you may lose a tiny bit of
strength if you take say 4 weeks off, it will come back pretty quickly as lost muscle is rebuilt
and as you get use to the swing of things again. For the most part, strength is retained pretty
well taking time off. Just keep in mind that taking a week off would mean you’re taking
longer than 7 days to train each muscle group again. For example, if you train legs on
Tuesdays and Friday’s, and the following week is an “off week”; then you have 11 days (or
~264hrs of time) between your last leg session (Friday) and your new leg session (Tuesday).
When ideally we try to have about 48-96hrs between workouts on a given muscle. So more
than 1 week off in my opinion is pushing the boundaries, so that’s best avoided if possible.

Side note: The reason strength athletes taper into a competition is because specificity. They
want to be primed to lift at maximum intensities at the meet, and not just necessarily
eliminate fatigue and be “decently” ready.

Before you continue, I would recommend reading my older article on de-loads from last
year either now or after finishing this one up. While as you’ll see on it, the information is a
bit inaccurate in terms of the reasoning to de-load; it still makes some vital points that
aren’t in this article and provides a bit more detailed info on the actual de-loading method.
Worth a read as you can also see my views change overtime as I learn more myself.

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY REDUCING FATIGUE?

In a text book sense, there are 3 types of fatigue to consider: peripheral, central, and muscle
damage.

Peripheral fatigue dissipates in hours. So really this kind of fatigue is irrelevant in the
discussion of de-loads. This type of fatigue is metabolic, so basically if you are exerting
yourself but cannot perform is caused by fatigue inside the muscle, an impairment of muscle
function if you will. Again, this recovers quickly so you won’t be having any lingering
peripheral fatigue from one leg workout to the next or anything like that, unless you go crazy.

CNS fatigue also dissipates in hours and any reductions in strength caused by it will be
recovered by the next day unless you had a high volume (or eccentric-based) workout you
were not accustomed to; in which then it could take a few days to recover from. But most of
you reading this probably aren’t going to go to the gym tomorrow and do triple the volume
that you normally do just for fun. So, as long as your training program is sensible and
consistent, this isn’t really something to be concerned about. In fact, training when under
CNS fatigue is actually not good for gains because you won’t be able to recruit high threshold
motor units that govern the fibers that grow from strength training. Central fatigue is defined
as an impairment in your ability to activate a muscle voluntarily.

Muscle damage is the main one, the type of fatigue that can linger the most. Depending on
the severity of damage, it may recover in hours to weeks. Unlike under CNS fatigue, we can
train and make gains when experiencing muscle damage. However, CNS fatigue that occurs
after training is likely caused by muscle damage (albeit it does dissipate quicker than muscle
damage). Muscle damage is exacerbated by a large and sudden increase in training volume or
intensity. Also if you’re a new lifter doing your first workout, or if you are a trained lifter but
you performed a novel exercise, or perhaps came back to the gym after a few weeks off.
Eccentric contractions can also easily cause muscle damage, as well as training at long
muscle lengths. Fortunately, the repeated bout effect allows us to adapt overtime, so as long
as you are following the core tenets for muscle and strength building (one of which include
training each muscle with a frequency of 2-3x week) and train at an appropriate volume level
for you; you will adapt and hardly experience soreness (this is a good thing) and minimal
muscle damage. People think being sore is a good thing, but really repairing muscle damage
is the body’s first priority once it is caused; meaning, causing too much damage can delay or
interfere with hypertrophy (gains) as well.

So as you can discern from above, you will either be recovering from muscle damage, or both
muscle damage and central fatigue. All of which under the right training program design will
allow for recovery week to week without a doubt. Some people like to add volume weekly;
where in the beginning of a training block they are doing say 12 sets per muscle group per
week, then 15 sets on week 2, 18 sets on week 3, then 22 sets on week 4 before finally de-
loading on week 5 (this is just an example so you get the point).

The first notable issue with these types of approaches are that it can be very hard to judge
whether progressive overload is actually occurring. Volume affects our state of recovery, so
if you keep making jumps each week then you may experience temporary reductions in
strength. So while you may be making beneficial adaptations, you won’t actually know
because of slower recovery. You’ll just be doing more sets but not really seeing any
improvements in rep or strength performance, at least not as much as you could be.
Remember, if you are training under CNS fatigue you won’t be maximizing your gains
(training under central fatigue is not ideal because you can’t activate high threshold muscle
fibers). Increasing volume week to week may contribute to this. More importantly, if you are
training under these states as each week rolls around (meaning you’re not recovering session
to session) then you’re probably doing too much. Or simply put, training with an incorrect
dose of volume and frequency for YOU. Now while you won’t know for sure if you’re
training under just muscle damage or both damage and central fatigue (since if muscle
damage is present then perhaps some central fatigue is also present); the best piece of advice I
can give you is if you’re not recovered by your next workout (assuming you’ve been on the
same program with constant variables for >2 weeks), then you’re at constant risk, at least
until you lower volume to more appropriate levels for you.

How to define recovery? Just use your best judgement. Are you sore? Feeling beat? Not as
strong as you normally are? etc.

Therefore, if you’re on a program that requires a de-load (not as in the program has them
built-in - which is fine, rather that you NEED one in order to continue making progress
otherwise you wouldn’t), then it’s not a well-designed program, at least for you as an
individual.

CONNECTIVE TISSUES.

Tendon and ligament health is of utmost importance. Tendons experience damage from
repetitive loading, which is repaired routinely, just like muscle damage [3]. However, excess
accumulation from excess repetition can cause overuse injuries. A few of you might recall me
mentioning an overuse injury I had a couple years back on my elbow as a result of putting off
my de-load week for too long. Essentially, I was crushing it and hammering my chest with
volume with an emphasis on the bench press. By week 13 I couldn’t do any pressing
movements anymore without tendon pain in my elbow. I blamed it on the fact I didn’t de-
load soon enough. Thus, was born my recommendation of not going longer than 12 weeks
without one - this is not a bad recommendation, it just isn’t accurate regarding the reasoning.

Looking back now, the result was that despite making gains, I was doing the incorrect
amount of volume of pressing for me. Resulting in an overuse injury. Luckily, I listened to
my body and recovered 100% within about 2 months. Strength came back rapidly. So while
technically I could have continued doing the same amount of volume I was doing and just de-
load every 4th week (for example) to heal up a bit and to be safe and avoid injury; it’s just an
inferior approach which could still result in another overuse injury down the road. I actually
know when I’m doing too much these days, as if I am then after a few weeks I can feel things
that aren’t right, like something about to tweak soon. I never feel that when doing the right
amount of volume, for me. I use to train above more than I can recover from and would be
begging for a de-load after a few weeks, with many times experiencing little tweaks that I
would hope would heal in time for the following week after the de-load was over. This is no
way to live and train - always in pain.

An inferior approach. No wonder I was always dealing with some sort of little injury.
Currently, I almost always feel great and pain free, and still make gains. While I do have my
bad days, they are unrelated to connective tissues nor CNS fatigue as a result of training.

Therefore, when a training program doesn’t allow for connective tissues to recover from one
session to the next, then damage will accumulate that could lead to injury like it happened to
me. The solution would be to de-load for a week or longer depending how bad the overuse
injury was. But like I already elaborated, a better way would be to reduce training volume
and frequency to allow for recovery session to session. So if you find yourself in this
situation; de-load, and when you return, do so with a lower volume approach.

BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY?

The goal is for the rate of repair to exceed the rate of damage. But we won’t know this for
sure. It is possible that your rate of damage will exceed rate of repair, so even tiny amounts of
connective tissue damage can still accumulate overtime, and so if you want to be on the safe
side, you could implement a de-load every once in a while. So my initial recommendation
(modified a bit) still applies. A de-load every 8-12 weeks should be good if you are
performing the right amount of volume and frequency. In my hypertrophy strength program,
we de-load every 4th week as a just in case, although I do mention it can be taken up to 6
weeks without one. It’s also difficult to land the perfect program for one person at first try, so
it must be self-regulated. Nonetheless, there’s research showing that even periodic “no
training weeks” do not harm hypertrophy long term. So a de-load done sooner than needed
(or when not needed at all) is nothing to be concerned about. It’s just important to know all
this stuff I just talked about.
PSYCHOLOGICAL REASONS FOR DE-LOADING?

This I believe is the most validated reason for including de-loads in your program, even if
you don’t experience any connective tissue damage, lingering fatigue etc. Psychological
factors as many of you may know are key for performing at your best. And if you can’t
perform, then you can’t hit PR’s, and therefore you can’t progressively overload as efficiently
and grow/get stronger as effectively. Some pre-made programs (including mine) prescribe de-
load weeks per every pre-determined number of weeks. While this won’t necessarily cut into
progress, there is one issue with this that I will admit: it fails to take into account the
individual and how prepared they are.

For example, if the lifter has to de-load every 6th week of training per the program, and at
week 6 they are feeling awesome and pumped about training, but they have to de-load, well..
why not just let the dude (or gal) use that enthusiasm and energy to continue training and
crush some PR’s? What if then on week 8 they are experiencing some psychological stress
where they could actually benefit from a de-load (even though they just had one) but instead
have to follow the program? I know personally when my head isn’t in the game, I tend to do
worse, no matter how much I force and push myself. But when my head is in the game, boy
do I surprise myself on what I can do. Performance will fluctuate workout to workout of
course, but it might be best to match stressful weeks with lower effort workouts and amazing
weeks with hard workouts. Although I know many people like to push through those tough
times (even if it means you’re weaker) because the gym is their therapy, and because training
hard and pushing through even when you don’t feel great is what separates champions from
the average. I get it. Just listen to your body is all I’m saying. If you have a stressful week
every other week, it definitely does not mean you have to de-load every other week.

There was a study done however in 2008 that showed that people who experience more
negative life stressors don’t adapt to to their training program as well [4]. Lifters with lower
stress levels tended to have higher bench press and squat 1RM gains after a 12 week training
protocol than those with higher stress levels. Why this happens is unclear, it could be
physiologically related, as well as psychological (decreasing motivation to train and reducing
adherence etc). This doesn’t mean to de-load for 12 weeks straight if you’re going through a
tough couple of months. But it looks like going into the gym to let the anger out isn’t as good
as going into the gym happy. So it will actually pay off to be a positive human and not stress
over the little things, you know like traffic or that you spilled your drink in your car. Now,
going into the gym sad is a different story and probably much worse than going in angry, in
my opinion.

Point is, have flexibility in your training and strategies to account for situations such as this.
And while certain stressors may take more than a day or 2 to manage, it is still important to
understand that you have a few options if you are serious about your strength/physique goals
and don’t want to back track your progress. There are only so many fucks one can give in a
single day, so keep them in check as much as possible.

SLEEP IS ALSO A FACTOR IN ALL THIS..

Not just stress interferes with your gains, but low sleep as well. In fact, a recent systematic
review (study of studies) found that improving sleep from roughly 7 hours a night to 8.5
hours a night improved athletic performance, decreased sleepiness, and resulted in lower
fatigue levels [4]. One study actually found that those who slept on average 5hrs a night lost
nearly twice the lean body mass than those sleeping roughly 7 hours a night over a 2 week
diet intervention, even with calories equated [5]. Pretty crazy right? You could be doing
everything right except sleep and make less gains because of it, as sleep appears to greatly
impact where weight loss comes from (fat or lbm).

Remember, you lift heavy weights day in and day out. To maximize adaptations and to
ensure you get as strong and jacked as possible; you’ll probably need more sleep than the
average person who does not put his/her body through this kind of stress. So I would say that
if you want to ensure “sleep” isn’t holding you back, get between 8-9hrs per night. This
probably means you should spend between 8-10hrs in bed every night, depending how
quickly you tend to fall asleep. That’s a lot for some of you, but the good news is you’ll have
more energy, be more productive, and make better gains! Training and nutrition gets talked
about a lot. But sleep seems to get tossed aside because it isn’t marketable, I mean whose
going to sell you a sleeping program lol? Get your sleep, it’s just as important as nutrition and
training.
SO.. WHEN DO I DE-LOAD?

Based on all this information, it seems that so as long as training dose and effort is
appropriate for you, you will be able to recover workout to workout from CNS fatigue and
muscle damage and thus won’t necessarily need to de-load in order to continue making
progress - which contradicts my other written work on de-loads. If you aren’t recovering,
then the long term solution is to reduce training volume (number of total sets). We can also
conclude that connective tissue damage will repair itself workout to workout. If you’re
worried that it’s not completely and want to be on the safe side (I wouldn’t blame you -
injuries suck), you could set mandatory de-loads every pre-determined number of weeks (for
example every 8th week).

Better yet, de-load based on when you need it per your individual circumstances. Below are 4
questions you should ask yourself at the end of every training week or before beginning a
new training week.

If you answer yes to 2 or more of these questions, you will de-load:

1. Is strength decreasing? (identified as fewer reps being performed at the same

weight or less weight being lifted for the same number of reps)

2. Are stress levels above the norm? (if you’re constantly thinking about something
else in the gym, it will detract from your workout)

3. How in it are you? (if you are dreading in the gym, don’t feel like being there etc)

4. Is sleep worse than normal?

If you only answered yes to one of these, you can continue training as usual, just train
through it. Be flexible and improvise. For example if you know next week you’re going to be
hammered with overtime and have less sleep, you can make that a de-load week. You don’t
necessarily have to wait for a bad week to happen for you to take the next week “easy”. Keep
in mind, all this is assuming you have the appropriate training dosage for you. If you continue
feeling beat after a de-load and cannot progress, despite sleep and stress being normal, you
may want to consider reducing volume and/or frequency, as you might be doing too much.
However, if you feel fantastic but can’t seem to progress anymore (plateau), you may want to
consider increasing volume or implement different strategies to jump start progress again
(more in at a later time).

So there you have it folks, I hope you learned a thing or two in this article. Implement this
into your training and I am confident you will see great results from it. Nothing is more
optimal than taking into account your individual self.

Thank You!!