It's Time to Deload

Have you been feeling sluggish in the gym lately? Workouts feel like they are going nowhere? Maybe you are like me and finding time for a workout has become part of your routine, but the second you get started in the gym you have no energy, your mind is elsewhere, and you have no desire to be there. This is natural, and it happens to all of us. What this means is that it's probably time for a deload. Here in this post I am going to tell you what this is and how I use it with my athletes so that you have enough information to implement a deload and get your workouts back on track

Within the strength and conditioning world, deloading simply refers to a planned period of recovery. This deload is typically one week long and often comes after a period of 3-4 weeks of hard training. Without getting in to too much detail about the General Adaptation Syndrome (Definitely go look it up though!), we are essentially trying to avoid reaching the 3rd stage of GAS which is exhaustion. Going past the resistance phase and in to exhaustion is marked by chronic fatigue, anxiety, burnout, and even illness or insomnia. Planning recovery ahead of time allows us to maximize our performance by understanding it’s hard to keep pushing the body to its limits year-round. If we implement a deload we can avoid exhaustion and will often promote supercompensation. Supercompensation is the increase in a performance parameter due to specific training from a prior period.

Now the part you've really been wanting to hear. So how do I go about a "deload" week? There are actually numerous ways to do this. You can take weight off from your exercises, lowering the load. You can cut out parts from your routine to shorten the time spent in the gym. You can even cut out a full day. The way I go about it with my athletes though is to keep the intensity the same (in this case, referring to the load or weight we used from the previous session on any given exercise) but significantly dropping the total volume in the session. An example of this is laid out next: My athletes always have their own individual card that lays out a 2, 3, or 4 week program in front of them. This allows them to know what they must complete and track their own weights for improvement. If the last session of a 3-week program looked something like this-

1. BB Front Squat 5x3 (sets x reps) @200 pounds Box Jump 5x3

2. BB Front Press 4x4 @120 pounds MB Slam 4x3

3. DB Step Up 3x5ea @ 50 pounds SL Jump, Land on 2 3x2ea

Then we would continue to use the same card on deload week, but we would not go up or down in weight and our sets x reps for exercises would look something like this-

1. BB Front Squat 3x3 @200 pounds Box Jump 3x3
   

2. BB Front Press 2x4 @120 pounds MB Slam 2x3
   

3. DB Step Up 1x5ea @ 50 pounds SL Jump, Land 2 1x2ea

As you can see our total sets went from 12 to 6. By keeping the intensity the same I believe I continue to drive home the desired outcome from the previous weeks but the drop in total volume allows them to reduce physical fatigue and gain back the mental edge by having much shorter sessions in the weight room.

So, to conclude, by deloading for a week not only do you cut back on the physiological stress but you also get reinvigorated mentally. When the next week rolls around you should be itching to start training hard again and take another step towards the goals that you have set for yourself.

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