All About Deloads!
To kick things off let's define what a deload actually is or at least what I'm using it to mean because there's a lot of different terms flying around that might mean something a little different.
A deload is a period of reduced training stress to allow for full recovery and get you ready for the next period of training. In the strength world a deload is most often done for a full week or slightly longer. I will often work in deload sessions to a clients program which involves reducing the training stress for a single training session which might be argued as not being a 'proper' deload or perhaps better termed a recovery session. In any case I aren't too hung up on the terminology it's just an easy way to describe it as when I tell a client that it will be a deload session or they're deloading for x amount of sessions they know it will involve lower stress training than usual.
The next question has got to be 'why even bother with a deload'? I don't think the #nodaysoff crew has done much to help with the case for deloads but if you train hard you will need to take deloads in some form if you want to continue making progress and not get injured. The 'why' behind taking deloads is actually a really important question to ask yourself because there are different reasons that you may take a deload and this reason will dictate what is most optimal to actually do in the deload session.
MUSCLE DAMAGE - During a hard training phase you may find that you're accumulating muscle damage which builds up over the phase and requires a period of reducing muscular stress to fully repair this damage. Whilst muscle damage is largely unavoidable due to the levels of mechanical tension it probably isn't very helpful in that it doesn't seem to directly cause a muscle hypertrophy response itself. Instead it looks like muscle damage needs to be repaired before resources are directed towards muscle growth. So if muscle damage becomes too high due to the accumulation of hard training we need a period of reduced stress to fully repair it so we can then start training hard again and be able to recover from it.
For most people I'd say this does often occur to some level but it also doesn't need a whole lot of time to recover. At the high end of the scale after five days or so I'd expect muscle's to be fully repaired and in a lot of circumstances it's less than that. Remember that it isn't systemic either, it's going to be specific muscles and different muscles will recover at different rates so with a well planned program we can help to reduce muscle damage by giving the trained muscle enough time to recover between training sessions. As far as deloading goes I'll often do this in an autoregulated fashion so if it seems muscular damage is ramping up a bit too quickly during a training cycle I might just reduce loading and proximity from failure for a session before continuing with the planned cycle (rather than taking an extended deload period).
JOINT & CONNECTIVE TISSUE STRESS - There isn't actually a whole lot of research in this area (at least that I can find) but we do know that weight training increases the strength of tendon to bone and ligament to bone junction strength and promotes growth of the connective tissue sheaths within the muscle, joint cartlidge, and increases bone mineral content. The reason this occurs is due to the overload creating a stimulus to adapt - your body must adapt in this manner to handle the training. Like with muscle damage there's going to be an accumulation of micro trauma to these structures which needs time to be repaired. The problem here is that it almost certainly requires a longer time frame to be repaired in comparison to muscles due to less blood flow.
One of the problems here is that the damage goes unrecognised for a fairly long time and it isn't until it reaches a certain level that it starts to cause pain receptors to start signaling that there's actually something wrong. If left unchecked you'll start with symptoms of tendon inflammation (at the elbow is a super common place in strength athlete's) and increase the risk of bigger problems such as tears if you keep pushing.
This is where planned extended deloads come into play. You might not 'feel' any issues after 6-8 weeks of hard training but you're almost certainly accumulating damage that will eventually show as an injury. As far as implementing the actual deload goes if you're planning your own training then I'd suggest taking a full week of reduced volume and reduced intensity - heavily reduced on both counts so it looks more like active recovery. We aren't looking to create an adaptive stimulus here we're aiming to recover and set us up to train really hard in the next phase.
The other option here if you feel pretty good still is to reduce loading and switch exercises to reduce joint and connective tissue stress and still train fairly hard to create a muscle hypertrophy response. Heavy loading needs to be reduced and I'd suggest 'harder' compound exercises need to be switched out but exercises like biceps curls and higher rep leg extensions etc could be performed to still make progress in one facet (muscle growth)
NERVOUS SYSTEM RECOVERY - This often gets confused with the need for Central Nervous System (CNS) recovery which is not the case at all. A study on CNS recovery found that after something like 10 sets of 2 reps at 95% on deadlifts it took around 20 minutes for the CNS to recover after the workout. What I am more concerned with is the impact of training on your Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). It's your ANS that controls the autonomic processes in your body that require no conscious control (you don't need to think about breathing or focus on digesting your last meal). The ANS can be further split into the Sympathetic Nervous System ('fight or flight' response) and the Parasympathetic Nervous System (think 'rest and digest').
The big thing to take into account is that your body responds in the same way to physical stress (eg training) and psychological stress (eg feeling stressed out at work) thus a hard training phase can push is to being too sympathetic dominant - this is amplified if you also live a life full of stress and worry. We want to be in a sympathetic state for training, we can use the adrenaline to help push us to hit that big weight but we don't want to be in this state for longer than necessary because over time we'll run into problems such as poor digestion, poor sleep, and find it harder to get focused during training.
As far as deloads go some people will be harder hit on this than others. For instance if you get perform best when really psyched up you'll probably run into problems sooner than a calmer lifter. That isn't to say you shouldn't be getting psyched up (I'd argue heavily that you should if it allows significantly better performance) but you need to learn how to switch it on and off as well as understanding there's a time and a place for it (which wouldn't be on a set of pushdowns for example). If you're this type of lifter and have a great deal of life stress you'll likely feel higher levels of systemic fatigue faster than a calmer lifter with very manageable levels of life stress.
Again longer periods of deloading such as a full week I think are needed to help restore some balance.
PSYCHOLOGICAL RECOVERY - It kind of ties in to the ANS fatigue however if you train hard and are always striving to beat the log book or other targets then it requires a great deal of focus. Over time you'll likely find that you're struggling to maintain the level of focus needed and start to find it mentally too challenging to keep battling the iron. A deload period will almost always help sort this issue out and give renewed levels of motivation and focus. Depending on the person this might be a full week or perhaps a little less, or perhaps just switching exercises and removing targets can work really well. The lack of performance targets reduces mental stress and the new exercises provide a fresh stimulus allowing you to create an adaptive stimulus whist also getting the focus/motivation back again.
There are likely other mechanisms at play such as systemic inflammation but I'd guess this is likely a by product of the areas mentioned above. Below I'll quickly run through a few of the more frequently asked questions so you'll have a better idea on how to apply deloads to your own training.
How often should I deload?
This is going to depend on a number of factors but as a rule the heavier and stronger you are the more often a full deload period will be needed. A guy weighing 140kg and squatting 400kg will need to deload sooner than a woman weighing 50kg and squatting 140kg. A good idea is to track your training and figure out when performance starts to decline. If you make great gains for five weeks but plateau on week six and then lose strength on week seven then deloading every sixth or seventh week would make sense. Just bare in mind that recovery isn't static so what works best now might now work best in a year (or even next month if you have big life changes).
Should I pre plan a deload?
If you sort your own program then it's probably a good idea. None of us like deloading really so it gets easy to just keep going for an extra week when it might be getting too much. The other option is to autoregulate and deload when you feel you need it. If you're an experienced lifter I like this approach better and is generally how I'll go about deloads with clients whilst still having a loose plan of when one will probably be needed. It can get a bit more complicated if your aiming to push into an over reaching phase in which case you'll be purposefully pushing past being able to recover and then aiming for a supercompensation effect after a deload. I would advise having a plan but also being flexible in this case as you need to balance the hard training with injury risk which starts to get higher during the periods you aren't recovering.
How do I actually implement a deload?
If you want to ensure full recovery then dropping volume and intensity to around 50% of what it usually would be will work well.
How should I deload for a competition?
This is a bit complex for this article but what I want to say is to plan deloads so they PREPARE you for the training ahead as well as allow recovery from previous work. You probably don't want to structure training in a way that's going to require you to deload half way through a competition peaking cycle for example. So think about what's ahead and plan deloads around periods that you need to be able to work hard and be fully focussed.
How can I extend my hard training phases?
Improved nutrition, more sleep, and strategies to shift towards a more parasympathetic state such as deep breathing techniques, meditation, relaxing music, and power naps will all help improve recovery and extend periods between needing to deload. Alongside a well structured training program of course.
How about contrast showers and such methods?
Using ice and things like contrast showers are a great idea to implement during a deload phase but I'd generally avoid them during a hard training phase unless it's to help with an injury that's preventing optimal training. Inflammation is an important part of the adaptive response so we don't want to be artificially reducing it during normal training circumstances. Periods of deloads and competition yes.
Should I reduce my calorie intake on a deload as I aren't doing as much?
Probably not at least not to a great extent. Your weight training sessions probably don't burn a ton of calories to begin with and you also need to remember that this period is for maximal recovery. To recover as well as possible you'll want to be in a slight calorie surplus still. Obviously drop out any intra shakes and extra carbs timed around training - don't have your 100g dextrose whist sat watching Netflix because you'd usually be training at that time.
I never feel like I need a deload and don't get injured either.
Well if your progress is also really good then keep doing what you're doing but make sure you listen to your body as you go. It's more likely that you train like a pussy but that isn't very PC so I won't say it....