Thank God It’s Deload Week
Even though I got a full eight hours of sleep, I felt exhausted as I walked into the gym. As I descended into the lower level of our training facility, every step felt like a nightmare. My muscles ache, my joints hurt, and I’m starting to wonder why my half-hour foam rolling session from last night had absolutely no effect on my overall soreness. Before I reach the bottom of the staircase, I already convince myself that it’s time to double up on fish oil pills. Because I’m following the same program that I write for my athletes, I have to assume they don’t feel much better than I do.
When I get to the bottom of the steps, I can see that some of them have already begun their warm up. Immediately, I can tell they don’t have their normal “pop.” I remind one athlete to take his shoes off and another one to brace his core as he performs body weight squats. Even though they don’t say anything, the expressions on their faces clearly show that they’re tired of hearing my voice. All I can think is, “Thank God tomorrow starts our deload week.”
What is a deload week?
For those of you who don’t know, a deload week is a one-week period within your training program where you reduce the volume and/or load of your training movements. At our facility, we schedule a deload every fourth week.
Why every four weeks? Four weeks wasn’t just some arbitrary number that I picked out of thin air. It actually was the result of watching how my athletes performed over the past eight years. For the first three weeks of a cycle, they progressed nicely. The weight got heavier, the reps got higher, and their form continued to improve. On the fourth week, all that came to a screeching halt. I began to notice guys miss on weights that they had moved easily a few weeks ago and perform less reps on body weight movements. To make matters worse, guys tried to skip certain exercises or miss training sessions altogether.
Around the same time I was making these observations, I was fortunate enough to attend a seminar at DeFranco’s Gym that was hosted by Joe DeFranco, Jim Wendler, and Date Tate. It was there that Dave first introduced me to the concept of a deload. He explained that powerlifters often cut back on training the week before a meet in order to prevent them from being fatigued and worn out during competition. Immediately, I knew that I had to make a change in my programming. If a deload week helped these monsters perform better, why wouldn’t it work for us? When I got home, I began to develop, not only a new program, but an entirely new philosophy behind how we train.
In the old philosophy, we worked in 16-week blocks of continual progressive overload, where the goal was to increase the weight and/or reps on all lifts each and every week. In the new philosophy, I planned to break the sixteen-week block into four, four-week mini-cycles with a deload week scheduled for every fourth week. The scheduled deload weeks would keep us fresh throughout the entire sixteen-week period and enable us to perform better throughout the entire training block.
The results: physical
As you probably can imagine, incorporating deloads into our program had huge results.
The table below shows the average of the personal records (PRs) for all our athletes both before and after we made the program change. Any doubt that I had about not training heavy all the time was completely eliminated.
Please note, high school and college athletes will never be removed of this doubt—even after helping them make huge gains. It will be a constant battle to convince them that taking a deload week will actually make them stronger. Some will even try to perform extra sessions on their own, so you need to keep an eye out for this.
| Table 1: Average athlete’s PR before and after deload | |||
| Movement | PR before deload | PR after deload | Percentage increase |
| Bench press | 275 | 305 | 11% |
| Deadlift | 325 | 370 | 14% |
| Squat | 375 | 420 | 12% |
| Pull-ups | 13 | 21 | 61% |
The results: mental
I personally believe that the mental benefits of the deload week far outweigh the physical benefits. When my athletes come into the gym, I want them acting like a “bunch of crazed dogs.” If they’re tired, sore, and physically broken down, this can’t happen.
Not only do I want them energized while in the gym, but I want them even more amped-up to come back. I want them sitting in their bed at night thinking, “I can’t wait to get to the gym tomorrow. I wish it was tomorrow already. If I don’t move some big weight soon, I’m going to pop out of my skin.”
Fortunately, adding the deload week into our program has done just that. It’s not uncommon for me to get a text message from an athlete stating, “We’ve been resting too long. I need to kill it tomorrow. You’d better have something sick for us.”
Before the deload, it was a struggle just to get these kids to consistently show up. I spent more time trying to find out why they missed training sessions than I did actually training them. At one point, it was so bad that I actually threw half our members out for missing too many lifts. I’m very happy to say that this hasn’t happened one time since implementing the deload week. Not only do these guys want to come, but they get visibly upset if “life” events (like their sister’s college graduation or dad’s surprise birthday party) prevent them from making a regularly scheduled session.
The results: coach/athlete relationship
In addition to the physical and mental benefits that the deload provides, I also believe it helps sustain the coach/athlete relationship. While I love being a coach and I love the athletes I train, we absolutely need a break from each other every few weeks. There are only so many times they can hear my voice before they tune me out or punch me in the face. At the same time, there are only so many times I can tell the same kid to squat deeper or to brace tighter before I explode.
In order to create these mini-break periods, we cut our training frequency from four times per week to twice a week during our deload weeks. While this doesn’t seem like a significant change, those extra two days of not seeing each other goes a long way. In addition, those extra two days away from them gives me more time to analyze the current status of our training program and make adjustments as needed. It’s only when I break away from the grind that I can make my best attempts at continuous improvement. Tim Ferriss might refer to this as my mini-retirement.
Wrap up
Whether you’re a coach or someone in training, you need to schedule routine deload weeks into your training program. Even if you hate taking time off, you need to or you’ll burn out.
Here are some tips to help you schedule and organize your deload week:
- Make a deload week a regular part of your program design, not something you do when your body breaks down.
- Eliminate max effort compound movements like the bench, squat, and deadlift.
- Eliminate any form of intense conditioning.
- Reduce training volume and frequency
- If reducing volume and frequency make you feel lazy, increase your volume of soft tissue work, mobility drills, and stabilization exercises.
- If you still feel lazy, use extra light weight (less than 35 percent of your PR) to work on improving technique for your core lifts.
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George runs a program in Staten Island, NY, called Advanced Training. His main purpose is to take blue collar athletes and give them a fighting chance to compete at the collegiate level. Over the past 10 years, George trained approximately 75 different athletes - ranging from high school to college - including Division IA. He also serves as defensive coordinator of St. Joseph by-the-Sea High School. George attended Columbia University, where he played intercollegiate football and graduated with two degrees - Chemical Engineering and Mathematics. He also hold the certification of CPT - NSCA. 
This article sums up everything I have been trying to do. All the guys I train hated the idea of a deload week until they actually tried it. Not only did they bust through some long plateaus but also felt better while getting stronger.
I am going to try this!
This article is spot on. One of the hardest things for me to do as a young, stubborn, (and invincible in my own head) 20 year old has been programming in a deload week. I don’t think I ever deloaded during the first two years of my training and maybe every six months after that. But, since I’ve started implementing at least a partial deload every 4-6 weeks I’ve seen substantial improvements in my physical strength, joint health, and desire to train. After 2-3 deload sessions, my passion for training always seems to revitalize itself regardless of how rough my training had been the past couple weeks.A properly planned deload is crucial to any well-rounded program.
Great article, very astute. Out of interest, what would constitue a successful deload for someone runing a 5/3/1 because I notice your advise on taking out the main core lifts whereas Wendler has the lifts remain but just performed at a much lower percentage. If the main lifts were temporarily excluded, what would you deem suitable replacements?
Many thanks
Are deloads important for beginners, or are they something really on more seasoned lifters need to use? I can’t imagine someone that’s still going up weights ever session really benefiting from a deload but I’m not very experienced either. If it isn’t something that beginners need, about when do people usually start needing them? 6 months? A year? after exhausting the gains on a beginner program?
Where do I begin! Coming out of high school all my friends came to workout with coach mahoney ( who coached me in highschool ) who has always wanted to train me from day one. I thought I knew what I was doing and I just needed to workout on my own which would be enough! Till one day he texted me while at college, about to enter my senior year of football, and he said,” grande I’ve been wanting to train you for the last four years please by into what I’m saying and I will make you into an animal..” I was like what the hell, you know what let me do it! Well I bought into everything he told me to do and at this point in the summer I still wish I bought into his program coming out of high school 4 years ago! I’ve been putting up numbers I thought id never get, I’m the strongest I’ve ever been! And I’m excited to get back on the field after going through the summer following his workouts! Man really knows what he is talking about! I’m thankful for everything he’s done for me and that’s in one summer! Just imagine what I’d be like if I did it for 4 years! That’s all I’m going to say…..
I can’t say enough GREAT things about Coach Mahoney and the Advanced Training Program. The most competent and knowledgable person I have ever trained with. I would recommend him and his program to anyone.
The fact that your foam-rolling session takes a half hour tells me you know what you’re doing. Most people I see roll around like they’re rolling out dough for 4 minutes then move on.
Great article.
Deloading is one of the toughest concepts for competitive individuals to trust in.
A motivated competitor wants to train hard each session. But, this article, along with my experience, proves that deloading is essential.
You really stressed and emphasized an essential aspect of training…. Excellent work
Deloads have another huge benefit in my experience: they keep guys from getting hurt. That extra week really has allowed me personally to stay healthy and train harder and more consistently. It forces you to tone down your intensity, making sure you do not push yourself too hard for too long. As someone who in college had numerous injuries and setbacks, my healthy days have far outnumbered my injured days since incorporating a deload. Going all out for 16-20 weeks is just a recipe for pulls and aches.
I also think the deload week gives athletes a great opportunity to practice some light technique work and master body weight exercises, which sometimes are overlooked when trying to get as strong as possible. These skills will absolutely have a carry over to the more intense workloads of weeks 1-3. For example, the past few months I have been really hammering home my Olympic lifting technique on just an unloaded barbell on my light weeks, and my technique and weights have steadily improved.
B. Nelson,
I like your note about “feeling better while getting stronger.”
Unfortunately, many people do not feel like they are making progress unless they walk out of the gym exhausted and / or wake up two days later unable to move due to being sore.
It is this same group of people who scoff at the idea of a deload week.
It is also this same group of people who usually end up injured or completely burned out.
Mike F,
The “partial deload” is something I actually do with our college athletes when they come home for the summer. While we still have a deload every fourth week, the training frequency during that week is slightly greater than during our deloads at other times of the year (4x per week as opposed to 2x).
Why do I do this?
Because I know the less time they spend with me, the more time they will spend training on their own – completely defeating the purpose of our deload.
Even though the frequency is higher, the bulk of the work is spent on improving technique on our compound lifts.
Sam Francis,
With respect to the 5/3/1, I would recommend you follow Jim Wendler’s protocol.
While he does not remove the main lifts (bench, squat, deadlift, overhead press) on the fourth week, he absolutely reduces the load quite a bit.
To me, working on these lifts at such reduced load definitely constitutes a deload.
I would use this time to really focus on my technique.
If the reduced load makes you feel soft or lazy, really try to work on your acceleration.
If you increase the acceleration, you can still generate a great deal of force.
As I constantly remind our athletes … F = ma.
Paul White,
Due to working with much heavier loads, the advanced lifter would benefit from more frequent deloads than a novice.
The novice usually spends the first 4-6 weeks using very light loads while trying to learn new muscle patterns.
Having said that, I would recommend a novice begin to incorporate routine deloads into their program when one of the following occurs:
1. They are not excited to train.
2. They feel tired before they walk into the gym.
3. They reach a plateau.
Please note that as muscular patterns are learned, the weight will significantly increase for a novice lifter. While they may think this rate of progress is going to go on forever, it will stop relatively quickly.
Having said that, I recommend you incorporate the deload right before point #3 above actually happens.
This is much easier said then done for two reasons:
1) It takes a great deal of experience to know when this point will actually occur.
2) The athlete is going to be so pumped from his gains, they are not going to want to stop.
Through my 8 short years of lifting weights Coach Mahoney is the only man I know who has taught me the concept of a “deload week” and even though at times it was tough to buy into what he was selling, the numbers I have put up after such weeks speaks for itself. I have consistently reunited with me college team every summer in top shape and most importantly HEALTHY. A great article from a great man..thanks for all your help and knowledge coach!!!