What is a deload week?
It is a reduction in volume and intensity.
It is more effective for your long-term progress.
This is because it allows your joints and connective tissues to have more time to recover.
Taking some time off from the heavy loads and volumes will not cause you to lose any of your progress.
From what I’ve noticed in my own training is that my body recovers a lot better than if I were to continue pushing.
The more advanced you are, the more you would need a deload week.
Whereas if you are just starting you may see yourself continue to progress.
You can pre-plan them into your programming or you can see how your body responds and if you notice you are beat up after a month or few months of training hard…
It may be time for a deload week!
When should you do the deload week?
It is smartest to do them during an overreaching phase.
I would recommend doing them every two to three months at least for advanced lifters.
You could do them sooner than that if you feel your body needs it!
A good way to do a deload week is to reduce the volume and intensity as we mentioned before.
You can do this by taking out a few sets for each exercise as well as decreasing the weight.
If you wanted to go a step further you could take out some taxing compound movements like the barbell squat or deadlift to give your posterior chain some time to recover even more.