Why We Program a Quarterly Deload Week
Next week is our quarterly Deload Week at MADabolic. Deload Week occurs every 13 weeks to cap off the previous 12 weeks of strength and conditioning.
Throughout the week, you can expect a weight-free training floor and a consistent 70% pace. Primal athleticism, agility, bodyweight movements, cardio, and striking are all at play during this thoughtfully programmed week. No different than our standard training recommendation, plan to attend 4x sessions to benefit optimally.
Why Deload?
When we train under load (with weight), our muscles are torn apart, connective tissue stretched to its limit, bones and joints placed under duress, and the central nervous system taxed. Basically…we are physically traumatizing our bodies. While this sounds dramatic, it’s actually a good thing – a?REASONABLE?level of “trauma” allows it all to grow back better.?
But said “trauma” can’t be reasonable if it’s never removed from the program.
While our bodies adapt to physical stress, it isn’t immediate. Your body needs a chance to fully recover and adapt to the stress placed upon it – the stressor in this case:?weights.
TLDR: You don’t get stronger from the act of lifting weights,?you get stronger from the act of?RECOVERING?from lifting weights.
This is exactly why you’ll find a?100% weight-free?training floor every 13 weeks. It is absolutely imperative that you give your body a chance to FULLY recover and adapt to everything you’ve asked of it. (For the strength training nerds out there who follow 6-week deload cycles, we operate on the assumption that vacations, work travel, and life will naturally find their way into our clients' schedules, which is why we stretch our training blocks to 12 weeks in length).
Deload Week is a core component to MADabolic's program design and something you won’t find in most other boutique fitness studios.
Why don't other brands program a deload week?
Deload Week can be hard to sell and requires repeated education to land.
But you’ve done your part by trusting us to provide you with the best possible training program, so we’re going to do our part by actually delivering that to you. And that includes deloading. We don’t do things at MADabolic because they sell. We do them because they work.
The benefits to deloading are plentiful, including:
If you train with us regularly, your body not only craves a week of deloading, but it will greatly benefit from it.
Consider Deload Week an opportunity to prepare your body for the heightened demand of the next 12 week programming cycle. You’ll return to the MADhouse properly adapted to the stimuli from the previous 12 weeks, and likely experience a boost in progress.