Deloads 101

Training starts with a plan; something to stick to and guide your training towards the effect desired. Delaods, or reloads, rest week, etc. can and should be apart of that plan. Deloads are important because they prevent burnout, injuries, and can actually boost performance.

Deloads should be in everyone's training plan, especially if they are competitive. Deloads before competition aren't necessarily the same as deloads in the off season; they provide much needed rest to a fatigued body and mind, allowing you to perform your best on the day you need it. These types of deloads are required to have the best meet possible, and depending on your strength level and your level of fitness overall, the timing and usefulness of this deload can be varied immensely. Being an international elite lifter who competes in the super heavyweight division, I need more rest than most of my athletes. My final training numbers are much higher than most peoples totals, usually making my last heavy squat and deadlift about 25 to 27 days out. Most people in the lighter weight classes lifting smaller overall loads can get away with their last heavy squat and deadlifts somewhere in the 7 to 10 days out range, allowing for much more training time than someone like me.

Regular deloads in training can be beneficial every 4 to 8 weeks depending on the lifters strength level, size, and general physical preparedness (GPP). Usually lighter lifters that are not as strong and are more physically fit can get away with longer times between deloads, especially if the loads and volume are adjusted accordingly. Some programs will also need less frequent deloads as well; more specific, high volume programs will require more frequent deloads than a less movement specific program. This is due to many factors, but mostly the training principle of variation and specificity. Variation can be great, espe

280kg technical singles can be a deload for an athlete who can pull 350kg.

cially in the off season to develop lagging muscle groups or incorrect movement patterns. The opposite can be said about hyperspecific programs which will create lagging muscle groups and incorrect movement patterns if left unchecked or without proper coaching.

Conjugate style training, or certain types at least, can be seen as a program with very little deload time because they do not develop very much specific stress from week to week, only variable stress. While most lifters would still benefit from some form of deload work at some planned intervals, there have been many that do not take planned deloads. They often claim that deloading too frequently is a waste of time, if you are on a 3:1 training to deload program (a very popular way to program deloads) then you are wasting 25 percent of your training weeks that you could be doing something productive during that time.

Using this logic, the best thing to do would be to never deload, and there are ways to prolong your time between deloads, even if you are a strong and large lifter. Mostly, this will be about fatigue management and not getting to the point where you NEED a deload. Overtraining is a contested phenomenon in resistance training but I can tell you that if you squat 800, bench 500, and deadlift around 700 for working weights 6 days a week, you will need more frequent deloads than if you were programming with the athlete's fatigue in mind. Hard training can be great, you just need to be able to recover from said training. Quality sleep, food, and rest are the main ways to train more and deload less, therefore making more training count towards your total.

Deloading can be described as a marked drop in volume, intensity, and sometimes frequency of lifting. Many people do this on a regular basis (6-8 weeks) regardless of how they are feeling to make sure their body is getting fully recovered between weeks and different blocks of training. You can use this to your advantage. For example, if you are running a 6 week hypertrophy block with the safety squat bar and you know there will be a deload on week 7, you can plan to make that week a PR week. After 5 weeks of training in the 8-12 range, you will probably be able to hit a 6 rep PR for that specific movement, or on your competition movement. Or, maybe during the deload week you are programmed a 2x2 at an RPE of 6 in the competition movement. This method can tell you if you have improved or not during the last block, based on the number you achieve this deload from the last one.

As athletes and coaches we need to be able to use any advantage that comes our way, and the literature is pretty clear that deloads make for better training down the road. We may as well use them to push our progress forward and continue to find ways to get better every day, even if that day explicitly is not making you stronger. Deloads will make your training better for the next block, having much more of an effect than just one more week of heavy training that continues to beat on our bodies and minds. Deloads can allow for more practice while healing, fixing issues that currently exist, or just healing from every day training. Use them, and use them wisely.