De-Load, the Overlooked Technique

[icutty]

Great post, I've heard of de-loading but never thought to do it. I am going to start a de-load week starting Monday and I will see how it goes. I'm going to do the 50-60% decrease and I'll increase cardio (I do need to burn more body fat). I've been going up in all of my lifts but I've never had a de-load ever since I started lifting so I hope this will give me even better results afterwards.

[iiX]

really great thread. sometimes I'm so focused on training that I forget that I need some extra rest every so often!

[docmansound]

Thanks Op for this excellent post/thread. After several months in gaining strength I have hit a wall over the last few weeks in virtually all of my compound lifts. I have been feeling tired and perpetually achy in the gym and a nervous about getting injured as I try for new PRs.
Thanks!!

[jlf]

Think if I just get all my compound maxes monday, and wednsday ( just deadlifts left ) I could consider thursday, friday, sat, and sunday a de-load? I'm starting a new routine and it's a little more advanced then my usual one on one off or mon,wed,fri routines, and I don't want to have to stop mid-routine because of feeling terrible. Usually I'd eat a little above maintenance and i've slimmed down about 20 pounds after 6 months without the effort of cardio, but this new routine requires gym 5days/week and 4 sessions of cardio/week ( then after the first month 5 cardio sessions/week, then last month 6 cardio sessions/week )
Thinking of trying HIIT for my cardio sessions, also.
I think I should just try it and if I can't continue just take lifts/cardio at lower volumes ( lower weight/cycling )
Any recommendations?
EDIT: Wait wait, is this the lift less weights de-load or the relax and just prep yourself?

[allonwatson]

Nice sharing! Very informative thread.

[gymjunkiem4m]

This information helps for everyone especially newbies like myself. ^_^

[the40ftpenguin]

good post. i hadnt thought to de-load this way. i tend to take a week off, though admittedly too late it would seem. i hate to be out of the gym so this way i think will help massively as im starting to suffer from tendinitis etc. whilst i might still be making gains, i dont see the point in hammering myself into the ground and requiring a lengthy recovery period. thanks for the advice! im sure it will be helpful

[gillG]

Really informational post it helped me out a lot!

[VoxExMachina]

Thanks.

[jaimeg123prmt]

I always noticed that when I take a week off, feel stronger when I return. The only problem is that I love working out. It's my passion lol.

[cava153]

wow thanks a lot for the info, though i love being in the gym i have all the signs just didn't know i should really break!

[Lucharilla0311]

Here's something I wrote on my blog a while back. Might explain things a bit clearer.

Deload vs. Time Off: Keep an Eye on the Fire
________________________________________

You have a big fire burning. Every so often you have to feed that fire with more wood (recovery) to keep it burning hot. This works so long as you have wood in reserve. At some point, the fire's dying, and you ran out of wood. What do you do? Realize what is happening, stop what you're doing, and go out for a week (time off) and get some more wood. Some people have a lot more wood in reserve (work capacity). They can keep stoking the fire every 4-6 weeks (deload) for quite a while before they run out of gas (overreach). Others just don't stock up a lot of wood. These people may keep the fire going for 8-12 weeks before they have to go out and get more. Tip of the day? Keep an eye on the fire before it burns out.

You can take this many different ways.

Better nutrition = More wood in reserve.

More rest days = Wood lasting longer.

Genetics = How much wood you can store in your shed, how well the wood burns, and how long each log lasts.

Some trainees will just go balls to the wall for lack of a better term for a month or so before tossing more wood on the fire (deload). That works. Others program their routines so that they can extend their training for a couple of months before throwing more on the fire (deload). That works too. Eventually, everyone has to pay the piper, and by that I mean your body can only go so long before you just run out of your supply. Adding in more supplements, calories, an extra rest day, even an extra few days deloading won't address this issue. That’s the equivalent of running around your house like a Chinese fire drill looking for tables and chairs to sacrifice to keep the fire going because you ran out of wood. These trainees are literally married to the gym and feel physically weak and depressed if they don't go in for a few days, let alone an entire week. Some call it dedication, others call it insanity. I call it counterproductive.

You should live to train, not train to live. A week or two a few scant times a year will not undo years of consistent training. This is what separates the few from the rest of the pack. The few are the ones that realize training is about +5 lbs and small steady increases over the months and years treating the process more like a marathon. They're also the ones that achieve balance between family, work, school, and the gym. My observations lead me to believe that the ones I see who are more in balance tend to be the biggest and strongest in comparison to the herd. There must be something to it. The failures which we've all encountered at some point treat things like a 100 meter dash, and not long term.

"You don't get strong from lifting weights. You get strong from recovering from them." - Practical Programming

Time OFF: Get More Wood!

7 times out of 10, you will never come back from going out to get more wood as strong as or stronger than when you left. Trainees coming back from getting more wood should undershoot where they last left off. Progress should look like a zig-zag, never a perfectly measured and equal staircase. If that was true, we'd all be deadlifting 700 raw. Instead, you progress and move forward up to the point to where your body says stop, remove yourself from the game for a while, then come back with a slightly reduced weight. The key is to always end stronger! This game is a marathon, not a sprint. Going back to the zig-zag model, I view deloading as a way to make the zig-zag smaller (ie usually you come off of deloads much stronger and conditioned so the need to reduce the load really isn't necessary). Taking time OFF makes the zig-zag a lot longer. Deloading and time off are two totally completely different animals. What the both have in common is that they both have to be done at some point.

DC is a perfect example of this system. Being personally trained by his old protégé years ago, I learned a thing or two about DC training. He's always stated that every blast is completely different than the last one. While it's important to be cognizant of your previous work weights, you have to treat them separately coming off of a cruise. He never said to go light by any means. But if the RP range calls for 11-15 rest paused, I may pick a heavy weight that I could do about 18-20 RP with. Over the course of the blast the weight gets wrenched up big time while the RP range gets lowered "in the zone" of what we want. Other trainees can just go back 4-5 weeks in their logs and press on. No need to remind anyone about how successful that program is for absolute size.

So what's progress here coming off of a 10 day vacation? The following is a real world example that many trainees can identify with.
John the bodybuilder started his first training cycle squatting 345 x 8. Twelve weeks later (remember there's one or two deloads somewhere in there) he's already at 385 x 8. Now he's really grinding them out, dragging ass, no motivation, going through the motions, or whatever else have you. Everything feels like it’s a thousand pounds and everything is a max effort. Training has lost its luster. Sick of measuring foods and he's looking for excuses not to train. Would another deload suffice? No, this time he's sick and tired of training and waking up in the mornings to go in. Well, to me that sounds like you're completely out of wood.

SO, he takes a 7 day total vacation. At the end of the week, he feels better, but still doesn't really feel like lifting. He says to himself, "Screw it" and extends it to 10 days because he wanted to take the family to Disneyland. By day 9 he's literally chomping at the bit to get back in there. Training starts to dominate his every thought for the first time since as far back as he can remember! Day 10 - Time to unleash the hounds! He wakes up before the alarm clock goes off and jumps in the car. Halfway to the gym he glances at the mirror and sees he's foaming at the mouth. His eyes are bugging out and he's white knuckling the steering wheel while listening to Slayer.

Keep in mind, John the Bodybuilder is VERY experienced and this is not his first rodeo. He wants to be smart about his loading and doesn't want to just go back in there balls to the wall. In doing so, it'll disappoint him (ruin motivation), increase DOMS to the point to where he walks like he got passed around the prison block, and probably shorten his loading phase by a month. He thinks, "To hell with that, I've waited ten days and I'm not about to screw myself over!"

So he takes the experienced approach and EASES himself back into it. Instead of starting off with a 385 x 8 squat which he may or may not be able to do, he drops it down to 355 and busts out a set of 10 reps. Very easy for him. In fact, he remembers his first training cycle when he put a lot more effort into the 345 x 8 according to his last journal's first workout.

14 weeks later (of course a few deloads worked in there if/when he needs them), he wound up squatting 405 x 7! He looks back in his journal and sees he last ended with 385 x 8. Wow - A new PR! A real Paul Bunyan this guy….

Over the years, our hero continues throwing more wood on the fire (deloads) when he feels like the fire's going out and progresses by leaps and bounds. Every so often (sometimes many months), he leaves to go get some more wood (time off). Without going to the gym he gets an extra two hours of sleep, more time to himself, and doesn't worry about planning and cooking meals. If he feels like going to the Cheesecake Factory, he orders whatever he damn well pleases, and tops it off with a few Sam Adams. Life's good. By day 7, all the cravings and relaxation is out of his system and he's once again rededicated to training. See, our hero isn't worried about gaining 1% body fat back or losing 10 lbs off his deadlift. He knows it's only a week, and that it'll get fixed during his loading phase (which is 12 times longer than his simple week of relaxation).

Additionally, because he knows when to unleash hell and when to pull back on the reigns and his total consistency over the many years of loading and unloading has brought him up to a 500 x 10. While that's tremendous progress, he's still never really satisfied. His legs are thick as tree trunks, but all that matters to John that it's never about where you begin; it's always about where you END!

www.lucharilla.com

[lesilafoyer]

Ussually when I feel stuck at a certain point I just stay away from the gym for a good 2 weeks and come back and hit the iron HAAAARD. It ussually works.

is any massage of biceps will affect in its size and shape?

[CXVII]

Great info, I wondered why I was getting tired and all the time lost my motivation to train. Decided that lowering my weights would help, I just didn't know that this was called de-loading lol!

[geexxz]

Very informative, thanks

[tiggyd]

Thanks for the info, I had actually never heard of this before, and I felt WAY exhausted last week!
I'll add a de-load to my next cycle. Again, thanks for sharing!!

[kurtb2080]

Great info! Fairly new to the whole working out thing. Been running myself at 100% for the past 6-7 months (5 days a week) and am starting to feel my energy level start to drop off throughout the day. Doesn't seem to be sustaining thru the whole day anymore, since I recently want to nap as soon as I get home from work. Also starting to notice my recovery times have been getting a little bit longer.

Started day 1 of the de-load today. Chest day, felt easy as I decreased all weights by 50%. Focused more on my form and the mind-muscle link. Noticed I started to go really slow reps on the bench trying to focus on using my pecs rather than my shoulders as primary. Almost too slow. Everything else went fine, felt like I had plenty of juice left when I left the gym.

Question, should I still be taking in as much protein and food in during this week? I've been trying to bulk now and am unsure.

Also, I am going no PWO this week, just switched to some Con-cret in post shake. (Has been good to me for recovery in past)

Thanks for any responses!

[VoxExMachina]

Question, should I still be taking in as much protein and food in during this week? I've been trying to bulk now and am unsure.

Yes, just eat as normal.

[kurtb2080]

Yes, just eat as normal.

Thank you!

[Bigal1717]

Introduction:

There are countless posts on the best way to train biceps, the optimum split for getting huge, how to bench press properly, or any of a million other questions on how to become bigger, leaner, or break through plateaus.

But one technique that helps achieve all of these goals is very seldom discussed: De-Loading. A de-load is a planned reduction in volume or intensity (usually for one week, or one cycle of your training split), whose purpose is to allow the body to dissipate accumulated fatigue, allow you to fully recover, and prepare you for further gains. Also, remember that weight training does not just tax your muscles. It also puts stress on your joints, ligaments, connective tissues, and central nervous system.


Why should you De-Load:

• To allow your joints, tendons, ligaments, and other supporting tissues to repair.

• To allow your central nervous system (CNS) to recover

• To give yourself a mental break from the intensity of heavy lifting

• To reduce the risk of under-recovery (overtraining)

• To prepare you for greater gains

Experienced lifters know that you can't go 100% all out in the gym all the time. Your body can't take it, and you can't keep up that mental intensity forever. If you try to, you often wind up getting injured, start just "going through the motions" in your workouts, stall out in your progression, and perhaps even give up completely.

If you de-load at regular intervals, you will find that over time you will make better progress, reduce your injuries, and keep yourself in the game mentally.


When to De-Load:

This depends on your experience & intensity level, your age & recovery ability, the program you are following, and many other factors. If you are new to lifting, you lack the ability to overtax your CNS, muscles, and connective tissues as much as a very experienced lifter, so you may only need to deload once every couple of months. If you are older and have a reduced ability to recover from weight training, then you may need to deload as often as every couple of weeks. In general, you need to set your frequency of deloading according to how hard you train and how quickly you recover. Somewhere in the range of every 4-8 weeks will work well for most people.

Signs that a de-load may be in order:

• You feel tired, persistently fatigued, have a decreased desire to train, or other symptoms of under-recovery (overtraining).

• Your weight progression is stalling and you can't seem to increase most lifts

• You are experiencing aches, sprains, tendinitis, etc.

• You train regularly

Note that last point again: If you train regularly, then you should de-load regularly as well. In fact, a regularly scheduled de-load should come before you start exhibiting any of these symptoms.


How to De-Load:

A de-load is a planned reduction in either volume or intensity, usually a week long (or one training cycle of your split). How you do it is up to you. The main thing is to back off your total effort to about 50-60% of what you would do during a normal training week. A few examples of how to train during a de-load week:

• Do your normal routine and normal volume (sets & reps) but reduce the weight you use to about 50-60% of what you normally work out with for each exercise.

• Use the same weight as you normally would, but drop your number of total volume (sets x reps) to 50-60% of your normal volume. (Note that you should stick to an 8+ rep scheme here.)

• Train muscle groups that normally don't get a lot of attention

• Use light weight and focus on refining your form and technique

• Decrease your lifting and increase your cardio

... or any combination of the above. The main thing is to make sure that at the end of the workout you still have a decent amount of "gas in the tank". Personally, I prefer to de-load by dropping my weights to 50-60% of what I normally use, stick with the same volume, and focus on refining my form, technique, and mind-muscle connection.

If you want, you can even just take a week off entirely. If you know you are going to be on vacation, for example, just plan your training around it so that you can use that time as a de-load period. You'll be training smart and not feel the need to try to find some way to work out when the rest of your family is relaxing.


Summary:

The goal of a de-load is to allow you to become stronger, faster, and bigger, by incorporating a planned "active recovery" phase into your normal workout program. If you do it correctly, you should be able to make more gains that you would without de-loading, reduce your risk of injury, give yourself a mental break, preemptively address hidden recovery issues.

.

When you de-load should you decrease your calorie intake?

[Retoaded]

vox and/or others...I workout 4-5 days/week, so max consecutive rest days typically is 2...sometimes I find that if every few weeks I take 3 straight days off then I come back refreshed and typically can get an extra rep or two on something that I've been struggling with. any one have any experience with this? I am on a pretty massive cut and I've found I need this more often now than when I started (my weight is much lighter but the weights I am lifting are heavier)...it basically comes down to trying to stretch out my noob gains for as long as possible.

point being, typically we are all talking about a week for deloading but I just wanted to throw out there taking a half week like 3 days and doing it more often...comments? seems to work for me.

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Dude, you are soooooo cool. Seriously. You are.

[EmailHosting]

When you de-load and come back in a week, don't you feel a lack of strength though? I find that if I skip only a week of weight-lifting, then starting back at the same weight levels is tough. I know that you mention dropping down 50-60% of the weight, but I tend to simply skip a week to de-load.

Maybe, my de-load process isn't really de-loading. It's being lazy. I tell myself that it's to help my body recover.

[laurabelned]

good stuff

[omarwashington]

from what I'm getting at de loading:
reduce volume 50% 60%
do not de load to failure

Then how many reps to do an a de load? What about burn-outs?

[EndlessWinter]

Is it cool to do a deload week where you do zero lifting and just some cardio?

[VoxExMachina]

from what I'm getting at de loading:
reduce volume 50% 60%
do not de load to failure

Then how many reps to do an a de load? What about burn-outs?

Do the same number of sets and reps you'd do on a normal workout, but at only 50-60% of your normal weight. Don't do any burn-outs, etc. The point is to completely avoid going to muscular failure.

Is it cool to do a deload week where you do zero lifting and just some cardio?

Yep.

[TitanG545]

You can't train all-out all the time. Eventually you'll take a break from training. You can either do it on your schedule, or your body will schedule a break for you. If you leave it up to your body to decide, it will nearly always be a bad thing. Either your progress will have stalled, or worse, you've injured yourself. Be proactive; deload on a regular schedule, whether you think you need it or not.

SO true, my body just made me take a break about 4 weeks ago. I developed tennis elbow, took a week off still pain. Another week went to chiropractor, while going to the chiropractor I had to go on travel for 2 weeks. Bringing my grand total away from the gym to 4 weeks, I hit it this past Sunday and I felt GREAT. I could of stayed in for a few more hours just hitting it, body was responding well. I think I might have even gotten stronger since the 4 week break, my shruggs went up. My back seemed to really love the time off.

[elmerwelling]

Great post. Typically I change my workout every 6-7 weeks. The first cycle I go 60-75% of weight and occasionally trim 1 set off certain exercises. This gives me the rest and recovery without missing gym time and allows me to iron out the kinks in the new routine.