A deload week is basically a week where you let your body relax, unwind, and recover by taking it easier in your training. This can be accomplished by significantly decreasing the weight and volume that you normally lift to encourage recovery for your body so that you can come back bigger and stronger.

Planning a deload week every 6-8 weeks into your workout program is very beneficial to prevent hitting a plateau. It will help avoid injury from overtraining and it can actually help with your mental health as well. Many lifters don’t realize how strenuous weight training is on our central nervous system. So really, no matter how big and strong you are, everyone can benefit from a deload week.

During this deload week, there are several ways you can go about this:

Reducing the load/intensity used – you keep the volume the same but you will reduce the weight you lift by roughly 10% (or use a weight 40-60% of your 1RM). This is best suited for those who are not competing but still high level athletes.

Reducing the volume used – you will keep the weight for each exercise the same but you will cut the workout volume by 50% or more (1/2 the number of sets or doing less reps per sets). This is best suited for competitive athletes.

Change the form of exercise you perform – for example swapping out weight training for a mobility focused workout, low intensity circuit, swimming, yoga, etc. This is perfect for recreational lifters.

Happy Lifting Fam!