What Is A Deload and When Should You Do One?

Strength training and hypertrophy training are two of the safest physical activities you can do, especially when done well. This is mainly due to the fact that we're working in a very predictable environment most of the time. The classic lifts like squats, deadlifts, and presses are all closed skills that are the same every time we go to complete them. No unexpected twists, turns or reactions needed. The forces involved may be high if we're training for strength, but they are very much within our control (i.e. we can choose to do the same weight as last week or 2.5% more in the gym, but we can't choose if a 100kg+ prop is going to try and break the gain-line through us in a rugby game). And most importantly, when it comes to soft tissue injuries in particular, as a coach you are fully in control of load management. What is load management? Load management is practice of controlling the longer term chronic training load of a client to both improve performance (by increasing sets/reps/load over time), but to also reduce the injury risk (by increasing it sensibly and not programming big spikes in volume or loading in shorter time periods). This allows you time to recover and adapt from each individual training session or stimulus, and continually get better without smashing yourself to pieces in a session unnecessarily or wearing yourself down over time. And deloads are traditionally a big part of the load management process. What Is A Deload? A deload is a planned period of either lower intensity or low volume training (or sometimes even both). They're designed to drastically increase your recovery potential, and allow your body an opportunity to either overcompensate with it's adaptations, or fully recover and start a new training block. It's essentially a planned gym "off-season" to give your body the break it needs to be able to sustain intense training and performance over a period of months and years. They will usually be programmed after a peak in performance or training intensity which has likely taken a bigger toll than normal on your body and recovery capacity. When Should You Do One? Traditionally deloads will be programmed following the rule of 4's. 1 session in every 4 will be deloaded. 1 week in every 4 will be deloaded. 1 month in every 4 will be deloaded. Which can be great... if you're a full time athlete with nothing but training, eating and peak performance in mind. In that scenario, when training is full time, super intense, super focussed, and the only thing that matters, you may reach a point where you need to deload to that extent consistently. But lets be honest... that's not you. You're an everyday athlete. Training is really important to you, but it's not everything that's going on in your life. So on occasion training is naturally going to take a back seat to your business, your career, your family, your travel schedule, your upcoming holiday etc. The Everyday Athlete Deload This is why I very rarely programme deloads for my everyday athlete clients. Life is going to do it for you anyway. Think about it this way. On average, is 1 session in every 4 going to be slightly compromised due to your everyday lifestyle? Is one session a week going to be cut short due to time restraints? Is one session a week going to be a bit lighter due to a poor nights sleep? Is one session a week going to ticked off rather than 100% smashed due to a lack of energy from your manic day or high stress levels? Is one session a week going to be missed occasionally due to unforeseen circumstances? If you're an everyday athlete, the answer is very likely yes. Is the same going to happen for one week in every month? With kids being off school, work kicking off, new contracts or orders coming in, house maintenance needing to be done on the weekends? I think it's safe to say that for at least one week of every month training is going to drop down a couple of places on your priority list (and that's 100% ok and expected). Then 1 month in every 4 is probably going to be taken up by your holidays, time off, visiting family, illnesses etc. So as a coach, if all of these things are happening anyway, and my client is expectedly missing sessions because they are a true everyday athlete, why would I programme an additional deload on top? The likelihood is that if you're in the gym and ready to go, pushing that session as hard as possible is the right thing to do, as we may not be able to do the same next week anyway. Deloads are overrated for everyday athletes. It's much more effective and much more realistic to programme deloads reactively than proactively for everyday athletes. Keep pushing training whenever life allows, and on the rare occasion when you manage to string together multiple weeks of high intensity, high quality training and you start to see/sense performance tailing off, programme a deload. Don't programme a deload halfway through that sprint of training and kill the momentum before it's had a chance to really pick up some speed. 1-1 Coaching If you're still unsure about your load management, how to programme deloads and how to peak your performance and body composition alongside a hectic everyday schedule, check out my 1-1 Online Coaching Service. I will manage everything about your training. Personalise your exercise selection, plan your training volume and loading, look after your long term load management to maximise performance while minimising injuries, and take care of all your nutrition and lifestyle needs to maximise your energy, recovery and vitality in and out of the gym. Just click here to learn more and apply.