The Deload Week - How Structured Rest Can Lead to Greater Gains

Resting Your Way to Better Results

Structured rest periods, affectionately known as a "deload" period (10$ to whoever can figure out where this word first appeared (serious)) are a necessity for any serious athlete. I really loathe the deload - I hate walking into the gym and using less weight for less reps, but it is a necessary evil. Everyone needs to manage training loads - whether they be team sport players (like football or lacrosse), weightlifters, powerlifters, bodybuilders or just fitness enthusiasts. Many top nutritionists even recommend structured breaks from dieting (I do too!). But before you take a week off from the gym and head to the buffet, it would be wise to take a look at the science first.

Deloading Theory

A popular theory about how training performance occurs is known as the Fitness-Fatigue model. In the figure below, a model of the fitness-fatigue theory is provided:

Adapted from Zatsiorsky & Kraemer (2006)

If you were not able to tell from my incredible Paint skills, the Fitness-Fatigue model essentially says that performance is the result of two factors - fitness and fatigue (not redundant at all right?). Basically, at any given time, your performance is the result of your "fitness" (which is increased via training), and your fatigue (which is also increased after training, but also by a host of other factors such as illness, stress, and sleep to name a few).

The idea is that after a workout, fitness and fatigue are both increased, but fatigue fades quicker than fitness. Essentially, this seems to be true, however, there is a catch. Generally, muscles recover from workout to workout pretty quickly. Muscles are highly vascular and receive lots of blood to help with this. However other body systems, which are necessary for high levels of performance, get fatigued and do not recover as quickly as the muscular system.

In this context, fatigue refers to all body systems. Connective tissue and the nervous system are also systems subject to fatigue. Connective tissue, like tendons and ligaments, can take a beating and may not recover fully from workout to workout. This is especially true if there is something besides working out that is acting as an irritant, such as poor or repetitive movement patterns. The endocrine system is easily overworked due to high levels of stress, whether that stress be from exercise, diet, or work! Additionally, the nerves that control the muscles simply can not go all out all the time, even if the muscles feel okay (as an example, try to max out on bench every day of the week - you may not get sore but your performance will suffer after a few days, if not sooner).

Practical Application

"A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle" - Kahlil Gibran

Now, the science lesson would be worthless without knowing how to apply it to your training. There are two questions you need to ask yourself (and answer) before planning out your deload:
1. How much fatigue am I really producing?

Here are some basic deloading guidelines to help you determine how much fatigue you are producing:

The more often you workout, the more often you will need to deload.

To put it bluntly, if you only workout twice a week, you probably will never need to deload. If you work out 3 or more times a week, as your training advances, you will need to implement some form of deload.

The more advanced you are, the more often you will need to deload.

The higher your level of fitness, the more damage you will be able to inflict on your nervous system, connective tissue, and endocrine system. As a general rule, beginners most likely do not need to deload until their training plateaus for the first time (unless other issues exist). Intermediate trainees can deload once every 6-10 weeks, and advanced trainees every 4 weeks.

The higher your workout intensity or volume, the more often you will need to deload.

High intensity exercise stresses out the nervous system over time. While it feels good to hit a personal record on a lift, try walking around afterwards. After a hard lift or three, you can create a lot of fatigue despite not doing that much work. This does not just apply to weight-training - hard interval training and plyometrics are also intense activity.

Using a lot of volume, typical of some bodybuilders and distance runners, is also very exhausting. The more volume you use, the more often you will need to deload as well.

Calorie restriction induces fatigue.

This one is the easiest for people to understand. When you eat less you get tired more easily! Keeping calories low for an extended period of time is a big stressor, particularly to the endocrine system. A week or 2 break (from dieting) is generally appropriate for people after 8-16 weeks of dieting (depending on the diet plan). With an approach like carb-cycling which changes macronutrient intake based on training day, breaks from dieting are not needed as often, if at all.

As far as training goes, when restricting calories, deloading may need to occur more often than usual.

Pain may indicate fatigue

If your shoulder hurts a bit when you bench press, it might be a good idea to deload on the bench press sooner than later, and additionally change the movement to something that is more comfortable, such as using dumbbells or a neutral grip.

2. How do I go about reducing the fatigue?

The most common deloading strategy is to simply cut volume across the board for one week by 40-50%. In the gym, that means cutting your total number of reps by 40-50%. This is generally my preferred strategy for intermediate lifters. Dropping the intensity is generally reserved for more advanced lifters and is usually not necessary for beginners.

You can also deload certain movements. For example, if you have a history of shoulder pain with overhead pressing, you might chose to not overhead press during your deload week.

As an aside, the "deload week" is just for convenience sake - if you are on a 5 day training split for example, a deload of 5 days is probably appropriate.

The deload week is a great time to include work on weak parts. Spend some extra time doing light intervals, corrective exercise, dynamic joint mobility, and just walking around and being active. There is no one size fits all deloading plan. The best way to go about it is to experiment with both approaches to figure out which works best for you. Here's a hypothetical example:

A beginner with a history of shoulder pain on the bench press that trains four times a week. His shoulder is "feels better now" but still irritates him on occasion:

For beginners I generally do not think deloading is necessary. However, due to the history of shoulder pain, I would recommend deloading the bench press every 4th week or so. For example, I would lay off of the bench press entirely for the 4th week without dropping intensity or volume at all for other movements, especially rows. With the extra time from not pressing, I would focus on 'rehabilitative' work like face pulls, scapular retractions, Ys, and dynamic joint mobility.

For a real-life example on how a deload workout fits into an overall program, you can check out my training log. I just posted my deload week up yesterday.

References

Zatsiorsky, V.M. & Kraemer, W.J. (2006). Science and Practice of Strength Training. Champaign: Human Kinetics.