Deload week: a light week in strength training
A recovery week is where a strong lifter doesn’t get weaker but gives the body a chance to climb to the next level. When heavy weeks pile up and your joints, sleep or motivation start sending signals, a lighter week is often smarter than yet another gritted-teeth workout.
Why do you need a recovery week at all?
Once your beginner days are behind you and you’ve built up a few years of training, your body no longer recovers on good intentions alone. Heavy weights, lots of sets and constant effort load the muscles, joints and nervous system. That’s when deloading comes into play.
A simple truth: you can’t push flat out all the time. Eastern Bloc countries and many strong athletes have used a system for decades in which they train hard for three weeks and deload in the fourth. The same idea works for the ordinary recreational gym-goer.
Beginners don’t need to overthink this right away. For the first 2 – 3 years you can often train without a set deload, as long as the training load increases sensibly and your technique stays in order. When the need arises, you can start with a 12-week cycle and then do a one-week deload. Another option is a lighter week after a 10-week cycle.
An intermediate lifter could consider a period of 6 – 8 weeks of loading followed by a one-week deload. At elite level two options are common: 8 weeks of loading and then 2 weeks of deloading, or training for 3 weeks and then deloading for one week. In practice 3 + 1 is easy, because a month divides into four training weeks anyway.
What does a recovery week in strength training look like?
The most common way is to reduce training volume. If you normally do 20 sets in a workout, in a deload week you could do about 12 working sets. That means volume drops by 40%, but the movements stay familiar.
With big basic exercises such as the bench press, squat, deadlift and overhead press, you can go even further. In the deload week, do 2 x 5 with 50% of your 1RM, and that’s enough. If your bench press record is 200 kg, do 2 x 5 with 100 kg. This is deliberately easy work, not a new challenge.
It may seem too easy, especially if at the end of the last high-load week you were doing fives or sixes with 130 – 140 kg. But that’s exactly the point. A deload is not a hidden record day. It’s a break within your training.
Another option is to leave the heavy basic exercises out altogether for a while. This suits those with years of training experience, whose technique won’t fall apart because of one calmer week. A week away from the big lifts can do wonders for your shoulders, back, knees and wrists.
Accessory exercises
There are two ways to handle accessory exercises. An intermediate lifter can keep the weights the same but do fewer sets, for example 20 – 40% less than the usual volume. Rest periods should be longer, and it’s worth avoiding going to failure.
An advanced lifter could also reduce the weights by 20 – 40%. If in the third week you did incline press with 100 kg for 10 repetitions, then in the deload week do sets of ten with 60 – 80 kg. The further along the program you are, the bigger the drop can be.
An idea from the translator is useful here: if you’re running a 5 x 5 program and take a lighter week after the first three weeks, accessory lifts can come in at 80% of your usual weights. If the deload comes after the sixth week, you can use 70% of your usual weights for accessory lifts.
The exercise matters too. If you do bent-over dumbbell rows with 70 – 80 kg, a 40% reduction is sensible. For a biceps curl or a rear delt exercise, a 20% reduction in weight may be enough.
Recovery week and complete rest
Sometimes the best deload is not going to the gym at all. You take the whole week off and move lightly: walk, swim, stretch, play a relaxed game of ball or ride a bike. That’s not laziness. It’s part of the plan.
The original text gave a good example of an approach used in the mid-nineties, after a conversation with Ian King. Later the same idea was confirmed at Nazareth Barbell by Mike Miller, whose system was simple: three weeks all-out, then a whole week off. Mike squatted over 500 kg, 545 kg to be exact.
This is especially important for older lifters. If you’re 35 or older, it’s often not worth pushing hard for more than 10 – 12 weeks in a row. It’s better to deload after every eight weeks, or sooner if your body asks for it. If you’re already over 40, recovery is often just as important as the program itself.
A practical summary for the recovery week
If you want to keep things simple, pick one of three options and stick with it. Don’t turn a light week into yet another heavy week, just with a little guilt.
- Keep the number of sets the same, but reduce the training weights by 40% from last week’s weights.
- Keep the weights the same, but cut the total number of working sets in the whole workout by 40%.
- Take the whole week off and rest actively.
For the basic lifts, a good rule of thumb is to cut the weights by 50% from your 1RM or skip them altogether. For accessory exercises, use about 80% of last week’s weights if you want to keep the movement patterns in.
FAQ
Does a beginner need a deload?
Usually not right away. In the first 2 – 3 years you can often manage without a dedicated deload week, as long as the training load increases sensibly and no injuries come up.
Does a recovery week mean your form will drop?
No. One lighter week helps you recover so that the next hard cycle goes better. Your strength won’t disappear in seven easier days.
Can you train at all during a deload?
Yes, you can. Do fewer sets, use lighter weights, or simply move at an easy pace. The main thing is that the week doesn’t turn into another all-out effort.
Original article: “How to deload properly…and why it`s so important!”
Translated by: Janar Rückenberg
Source: Turg.Fitness.ee
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