If you’re feeling stuck at the gym, as if your progress has stalled, or even reversed, know that this is totally normal.
When you maintain a strict, consistent, and intense training schedule over a long period of time, your body starts to wear down, even if you take regular rest days and are smart about recovery.
Often, when you hit a wall or a plateau, all you need is a deload week, to give your body a break from the rigors of your regular training routine.
Keep reading and we’ll explain just what a deload week is, how to know if you need one, and how to do a deload week the right way.
What is a Deload Week?
A deload week is a short period where you temporarily lower your training intensity, to allow your body a little extra time to recover.
This period usually lasts a week (though not always – you could do a deload for a few days, if this works better for you).
It’s also most common in strength training, where your deload week will consist of lighter workouts, either lifting lighter weights or lower volume (i.e. fewer sets and reps).
However, the concept of a deload week can apply for any kind of physical training, whether you’re doing primarily cardio, endurance training, HIIT, sports, or a mixture of various activities.
Proactive vs Reactive Deload Weeks
There are two types of deload week: proactive and reactive deload weeks.
What you do during the week is the same, the difference is just how you add them to your schedule.
Proactive deload weeks are planned ahead of time. For example, you might plan for four weeks of full-intensity training, followed by a deload week, and maintain this schedule indefinitely.
A reactive deload week is unplanned. It’s done as-needed – meaning you identify the signs from your body that you need a deload week, and then make the decision to dial down the intensity.
There are not necessarily any major benefits to doing deload weeks one way or the other, but most will do reactive deload weeks, as this approach offers more flexibility.
Proactive deload weeks are more common for serious athletes or bodybuilders, who might need a more structured training schedule, often due to specific competition timelines they need to match their training with.
Deload Week vs Recovery Week
A deload week is different from taking a week off training completely.
This is called a “recovery week”. The core idea is the same – to give your body a week to rest and recover.
However, a deload week is designed to keep yourself in the same rhythm and routine of training, to make it easier to pick back up to your normal intensity the week after.
What Are the Benefits of a Deload Week?
Deload weeks allow your body to recover from fatigue and physical stress that accumulates over time.
This is not the acute effects you feel right after training, but a slow reduction in your energy levels.
With a heavy training schedule, you may find you don’t quite recover 100% between each session. One day you’re at 97%, the next you’re at 95%, and in time, you find your baseline is maybe around 70%.
A deload week gives more room for you to recover, and replenish your energy stores that have been slowly draining away.
Yet by doing a deload, instead of a full recovery week, you keep up the same schedule, you don’t break the habit of working out, and you still get some gains from getting in the gym each day.
It can also be a good opportunity to focus more on form, which might improve your performance the next week when you return to normal intensity.
Are There Any Downsides to Deload Weeks?
There’s not a lot of risk or downside to taking a deload week.
Lower training volume will generally result in less progress, so it may take a little longer to reach your fitness goals.
However, this typically evens out, as a deload week allows your body to fully recover, and increases your output on regular weeks.
It’s also worth noting that a deload week will, at worst, pause your progress. You won’t lose your progress or take a step back.
Even if you were to take the whole week off training, it’s unlikely you’ll lose your previous gains. It generally takes around 2-4 weeks before you start losing muscle, so one week of reduced intensity won’t set you back to square one.
How Often Should You Do a Deload Week?
There’s no one right answer for how often you should deload (or, for that matter, if you actually need to do a deload week in the first place).
You’ll likely need to deload more regularly if you’re training at an especially high volume, frequency or intensity.
In this case, you might do a deload week every 3-4 weeks.
Athletes or regular lifters might do a deload every 8-10 weeks.
If you’re working out less intensely – perhaps you’re a beginner or casual lifter – you may not need a deload week at all, or if so, they could be much less frequent.
How To Know If You Need a Deload Week
Most people don’t need to schedule regular deload weeks. Instead, consider taking a week of lower intensity if you’re starting to feel the effects of your training schedule and think a deload might help.
Keep an eye out for the following signs:
- You’re struggling to lift weights or complete workouts that usually feel manageable.
- Feeling unusually tired despite adequate sleep and nutrition.
- Prolonged muscle soreness that doesn’t seem to go away.
- Lack of improvement in strength, endurance, or other fitness markers.
- Feeling unmotivated, irritable, or overly stressed about workouts.
- Trouble sleeping or poor sleep quality.
- Recurring joint or tendon discomfort.
How to Do a Deload Week
When you do a deload week, you’ll generally reduce training intensity, volume, frequency, or a mix of all three.
If you usually lift 70-75% of your 1 rep max (1RM), for a deload week you might reduce this to 40-50% of your 1RM.
If you were to lower volume instead, you might do one less set (e.g. 3 sets instead of 4), or do half to two-thirds of your normal reps (e.g. 6-8 reps instead of 12 reps) for each set.
You could do the same thing for cardio or endurance as well – simply reduce the speed, distance, duration, incline, or any other markers that make it easier on your body and allow you more space to recover and get back to 100%.
Otherwise, maintain your same training schedule. Outside of the gym, focus on active recovery, getting good sleep, and eating well.
Don’t cut down your diet during a deload week – you want to maintain a normal calorie intake, and get a lot of protein, to give your body the fuel it needs to recover.
Once the week is over, return to training as normal, and watch your energy rebound and progress start up again.
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