I hate to say it, but I only recently started to program ‘deload’ weeks. I started doing them when I did 5/3/1. Before this, when I felt fatigued, I would just take an extra day or two off. The only weeks I would take off were if I was on vacation or the holidays.
I’m just now realizing how important deloading is.
I see people doing different versions. Some do nothing on their deload week, some do lower volume or intensity, or lower frequency. And then people do them every 3 weeks, 6 weeks or 8 weeks? Some program them strictly (like 5/3/1) while others do them instinctively.
About every 6-8 weeks I take what I prefer to call a reload week. I still go in but instead of going heavy 3-4 times a week ill go very light 3 times a week. But I don’t do any of the big 3 moves at all. The 40-60 mins I usually spend on the big heavy movement I’ll do nothing but Stretching, Massage, and Foam Rolling of the particular movers of that muscle then finish with 3-4 high rep volume moves that hit the normal muscles I would be using that day so say for Bench would look like…
40 mins of Stretching out Chest, Lats, and Tris. Then Foam roll Upper Back and Chest.
Incline DB Press x 4 x 25
Pulldowns x 4 x 25
DB Extensions x 4 x 25
Keeping the rest to under a minute and sometime if feasible running it all like a big circuit just to force blood.
my preference is to do frequent de-load weeks (every 3-5 weeks) where i still push heavy, but I drop the total volume of the training sessions by around half.
For example a regular training session for lower-body might be:
A: Back Squat 6/4-5 reps
B1: Front Squat 4/3-5
B2: Snatch RDL 4/4-6
C1: Leg Press 3/8-10
C2: GHR 3/6-8
And during a de-load
A: Back Squat 3/2-3
B1: Front Squat 2/2-4
B2: Snatch RDL 2/3-5
C1: Leg press 2/6-8
C2: GHR 2/4-6
A lot of times my deloads get cut short because of traveling or something so I plan around that. I usually plan a deload to be 5 days instead of a full week and just do off/push/pull/legs/off as my 5 days. General rules for me are
Deload every 6-8 weeks.
Big lifts work up to 5 reps around 60% just like 5/3/1 days
Other lifts 80% of both weight/reps, so normally 50lbs for 10 reps would be 40lbs for 8 reps on deload week.
I know that for me personally, the “do nothing” for a week is the worst for me strength-wise. It seems like I lose 5-10% of my max when I do this. I also know that I have made the best gains with a high frequency/low volume approach.
I think I’m going to stick to the 5/3/1 recommended deload, even if I am running a different type of program focusing on growth over strength (higher reps, more isolation exercises).
Deloads are recent for me as well. All I do is basically just do speed/form work with my main movements, nothing heavy, like 225 on Squats, 315 on DL, ect. Usually bump my reps up a notch on assistance/BB’ing stuff (so lifts I do 8-10 reps on I’ll do 10-12) and cut a set from each exercise. Allows me to go in, get some work in, but definitely not beat myself up.
I dialed in my nutrition and (almost) never missed a scheduled workout in 2013. Results are meh. On the way back from vacation it totally hit me, the last time I had a major muscle growth spurt… was when I came back from my last vacation… where I only did BW Pullups, Dips and Pushups and jogging
Instinctive deloads for me from here on out, just need to make sure I go to the gym and burn some calories with conditioning so I can eat the same.
The worst thing I ever did for myself was skip deloading. Once I started doing it again, I finally broke past some LONG plats.
These days, I just skip the heavy work and only hit assistance lifts on my deload week. I’ve also run deloads where I do a lighter percentage for my main lift, and those work well too.
deloading is something I dont think Ill ever feel like Im doing perfectly, but I have picked up a few ideas on it. For one, both too frequent and too infrequent of deloads and Im spinning my wheels. The original 5/3/1 with a deload every 4th week was too much. If I really get on a tear breaking PRs sometimes I go too long without one, but in my experience you cant just keep plowing through. Now, my goals are far more strength than size so I cant really comment on deloading for hypertrophy but I gotta imagine its kinda the same thing.
I also think Ive been really lucky with illness/travel/work/family/life just providing deloads as needed too.
Far as how I deload, I either dont go to the gym at all, or I do other random shit that I know wont hurt my recovery, or better yet will help it. Or I do one of the stupid challenges people come up with because they are fun. Those kinda defeat the purpose of the deload sometimes but whatever.
If your doing it right the day after a deload workout should feel like you didn’t lift the previous day. This will give you the recovery benefits of taking a week off but with the added benefit of actually working out such as blood flow to muscles, staying in routine, movement patterns, etc.
Doing the two week do nothing DC deload led to significant strength losses (since I timed it to coincide with a holiday my nutrition during that period was not the best also) so I wouldn’t do a do nothing deload again. I always found a couple of full body sessions during the 5/3/1 deload week with the percentages recommended by JW to give the best of both worlds.