What the deload?
Are you feeling stuck in your workout routine?
"What do you mean lift less? Doesn't that ruin my progress?"
Keep reading because the very answer may be something you’d never thought of. Deloading.
Deloading is an opportunity for your entire body to decompress by lifting less than you traditionally would. Your joints and ligaments get a break, your muscles have an opportunity to repair, and your stress hormones regulate. A deload is not a week off. It maintains the same workouts, gets your heart rate elevated, and performs the same amount of repetitions. The only thing that changes is the intensity!
The process of a deload week and its reasoning can seem counterproductive before we understand how it works and why it works, so let's break it down!
How do I make progress?
Your body progresses by A) Doing Work B) Recovering from Work, and C) Adapting to Work. But if you never allow yourself to RECOVER, you can never allow yourself to ADAPT; therefore, never PROGRESS. First, the stimulus (weightlifting) must be intense enough to create damage within the muscle fibers (A). Then, with proper nutrition and adequate sleep, these damaged muscle fibers are repaired, and the "gaps" are filled (B). Finally, with the damage done and recovery made, the next time the same lift is performed, the body is better prepared for it and can do a little more than the last time (C )! But this cycle does not last forever. Our body hits a wall with so much damage over time, and this is where deloads are called into action.
Avoiding Overtraining
You can only put the pedal to the metal so long before you run out of gas. Trying to maintain 100mph when your tank is on empty is known as OVERTRAINING, and that is how you injure yourself, become fatigued, have poor sleep, or plateau in weight loss. To prevent that, we take a deload week every 5th week of the program. This is our pit stop, where we fuel back up and grease the wheels before our final stretch in the following week. Your recovery goes beyond muscles; your ligaments and connective tissues take longer to heal because of their little blood supply, so this week ensures ample time for them to recover. Doing this also restores testosterone and cortisol hormonal levels within the body, making your life a whole lot better in how you mentally feel.
Will I lose my fitness?
You will not lose any fitness or strength within the deload week. It is a week focused on better recovery, but it is NOT a week off. We are still exercising. Your repetitions per set remain within the same ranges, the amount of sets stays the same, but the heavy load you're lifting is reduced. This is what allows not only your muscles but joints and ligaments to recover within the week. If done efficiently, you should feel refreshed and adapted from the deload week and become a stronger individual the following week.
Written By: Jordan Janusz
