Ever Heard of Deloads? A Great Tool for Sports, Bodybuilding, & Powerlifting (A Must Read…)
“You make just as much progress outside the gym as you do in the gym…”
In the world of physical endeavor, a deload is referred to a shift in training from intense workouts to recovery (factors like rest, sleep, proper nutrition, etc.). Most people still train during deloads, however training is modified to better leverage recovery as a tool to increase your muscle gain/ athletic ability in the long term. The normal stereotypical hardcore approach to plateauing (reaching a weight on a lift you can’t get above, reaching a running speed you can’t surpass, etc.) is to workout harder or even completely reorient your training to a much harder routine. In reality, the solution to a plateau isn’t to work harder, but to work smarter. This can be attributed to something well known as the two compartment fitness fatigue model. This model tells us that every time we train, we increase fitness (muscle gain, strength gain, etc.) alongside Fatigue (metabolic waste, muscle damage, nervous system fatigue, etc.). When Fitness & Fatigue are both high, performance will be negatively affected. Bad performance due to increased fatigue is also the most common way to injure yourself in a sport or in the gym. This is why if you’ve ever played a sport, your coach has probably advised you not to train too excessively within 1–2 days of an official event. This also why as you become a more advanced powerlifter, it’s advised that you max out less often.
The 3 Types of Deloads
1. The Full Week Off
This was popularized by a number of old school bodybuilders — Namely people like Arnold Schwarzenegger & Joe Weider. 1 week is the perfect amount of time because it won’t lead to any muscle loss. Recently, this method has lost a lot of its popularity since people have realized that active rest is better than doing nothing at all. However, the one week off would greatly benefit your recovery, injury resistance, & progress going forward. This would also work great if you’re going on a vacation or need a mental break from training.
2. The Taper Week
For this deload, you drop your volume while maintaining a high intensity. This means you cut your training volume in half, but still train hard. It’s common practice for powerlifters to do this type of deload 1 week before maxing out on a lift. They would cut the volume in half while concentrating only on compound lifts. This would mostly benefit peek performance athletes/ athletes like powerlifters who build up to a week during which they test all their one rep maxes.
3. The Standard Deload
This is the most commonly used deload because of it’s compatibility with multiple athletic endeavors (most popular in bodybuilding). This is a week during which you moderately decrease both training volume & intensity. You can drop volume from 30%-50% which would translate to dropping 1–2 sets per movement in the gym. For intensity you can drop to 6–8 rpe (Reps In Reserve — calulate by subtracting the number of reps you have left in the tank from 10. So if my RPE is 6, I had 4 reps left in the tank). If you don’t micro manage your numbers like this and instead train more instinctively like me, that’s fine. Just consider this week a slightly lighter week during which you go a little lighter & do one less set each exercise.
My Experience
Through high school I was a very avid track runner (qualified for county) and an aspiring natural bodybuilder. This equated to a combined 4–5 hours of training everyday including track practice and the gym right after. It was amazing while it lasted which wasn’t very long. In my softmore year, I started experiencing excruciating back pain. Being the naive young athlete I was, I took pain killers and trained through the pain which made it way worse. It got to the point that I was staying up all night coping with intense pain even on strong pain killers. I’ve since recovered and am once again an aspiring natural bodybuilder in college. I am hyperaware of the way my body responds to exercise and have done maybe 2 standard deloads in the last 10–11 months. It gave my joints and muscles much needed recovery and I felt great after. If you’re a bodybuilder, powerlifter, or an avid athlete of any kind (soccer, football, dancer, etc.) I highly recommend utilizing deloads as an effective training tool.
If you want to follow my journey — follow my instagram @creative.fix.fit and I’d really appreciate it if you follow me here on medium. Also check out my injury prevention brand & maybe even buy a roller to support a small business started by a college student. :)
