Anatomy of a Deload: How & When to Take a Break

For those that have walked the path and become strong, there are times when the weights go from challenging, to soul-searching, to world-endingly heavy, yet, stress must continue to increase in the quest for more strength. That’s where the deload comes in — a strategic, drastic reduction in load and volume to allow fatigue to dissipate and provide a much-needed psychologic break from heavy training. Whether it’s following a meet, an advanced training block, or simply a phase of heavy training mixed with a large amount of life stress, deloads are an important part of an intermediate and advanced lifter’s programming.

Today Matt and Scott walk through some examples of deloads from their clients as well as their own training, and discuss how their approach to programming a deload week has evolved over the years. They also share their subjective experience of training during a deload week, which may come as some comfort to lifters experiencing their first deload; often a deload feels shockingly heavy despite the reduced loads.

Got a question for Matt and Scott? Email us at questions@barbell-logic.com and we’ll answer your question on an upcoming Saturday Q&A!

A deload is one tool among many for getting stronger with better recovery.

Key Takeaways

The point of a deload is to let fatigue clear. In a normal deload, a lifter who has been setting PRs drops the load for about a week, then comes back as strong or stronger than before. Matt shows how light this can be: Scott’s deload week used 315×5×4 squats and 365×5×3 deadlifts, compared with recent PRs of 405 and up. That’s light, but it’s not time off.

Deload after a meet, too. After Niki Sims went 9-for-9 at a meet, Matt cut her training to roughly 50% intensity, brought the press back in, and moved her toward a 4-day split with easy weights for a couple of weeks. The goal is to practice the movement patterns and feel healthy before ramping back up. Matt points out that trying to push hard right after an all-out meet isn’t sustainable.

Time off can come with a surprise. Scott trained only sporadically for months and then came back and hit PRs on almost every lift. Matt’s view is that a long stretch of continuous hard training builds up small injuries, joint aches, and fatigue. A planned break can let those heal, so you may come back stronger than you expect.

Putting it to use. If you’ve been training hard for a long block or just finished a meet, plan a lighter week instead of waiting until you’re beaten up. Keep moving, keep the movements crisp, and judge the deload by how you perform the week after.

Related: how to improve sleep for recovery, the 4-day strength training split, Heavy-Light-Medium programming.

Want a program that respects your recovery and still drives progress? Work with a Barbell Logic coach.