If you train hard enough, and frequently enough, you will eventually reach a point where more training stops producing more progress.
That’s where a deload week comes in.
A deload is a planned period (e.g. 7 days) of reduced training stress designed to allow your body and mind to recover from the accumulated fatigue of training (before putting it through another cycle!) Rather than stopping exercise completely, you continue training while deliberately reducing the overall workload.
This might mean lifting lighter weights or performing fewer sets, reps or shorter work intervals.
Before you freak out, no, your fitness will not decline – 7 days isn’t long enough for that to happen. In fact, this week of light work may be just what your body needs to realize the gains you’ve worked so hard for in previous weeks and months.
In other words, your measures of fitness may (should) improve from a deload week.
High intensity training is the stress that the body responds (adapts) to when you give it a chance to recover. It’s when you’re sleeping at night or taking a rest days that gains are actually gained.
Muscles, connective tissues, the nervous system and even your psychological capacity to train can accumulate fatigue over time. If that fatigue continues to build without adequate recovery, performance can plateau or decline, motivation can suffer, and the risk of aches and overuse problems may increase. There is a point when more high intensity training is not only not productive, it can be genuinely destructive.
A deload period should be proactively planned and followed after several weeks of progressively greater training intensity. The goal is to avoid feeling exhausted and, crucially, overtraining.
Overtraining is a physical state in which your neurological, hormonal and other systems have been stressed to the point of no longer functioning properly. It is often characterized by worsening physical performance and depressed mood and takes much, much longer to recover from than 7 days.
Training creates the stimulus. Recovery allows for the adaptation.
A deload period strikes a balance between the two for the best results.
