Deload
A deload is a planned period, almost always a week, in which volume or intensity comes down so the body can finish absorbing the accumulated work. It is not a break: training continues, with fewer sets, less load or both, keeping the movement patterns in place.
Deload
A deload is a planned period, almost always a week, in which volume or intensity comes down so the body can finish absorbing the accumulated work. It is not a break: training continues, with fewer sets, less load or both, keeping the movement patterns in place.
In practice
Scheduling one before it is needed is cheaper than discovering it after performance has already dropped. The sign that it came late is the familiar one: the same weight feels heavier three sessions in a row.
Related terms
PeriodizationPeriodization is organizing training into blocks with different goals and loads over time, so an athlete arrives at a given moment in the best possible state and stops stallingMesocycleA mesocycle is a training block of roughly three to six weeks with one dominant goal, such as accumulating volume or expressing strengthTraining volumeTraining volume is the total amount of work done in a periodAutoregulationAutoregulation means adjusting a session's load or volume based on how the person responds that day, instead of following a number set weeks earlierBacking off for a week to progress: the science of the deloadSee the whole glossary
