What Is Unloading and When Do You Need It?
Even among professional athletes, nobody trains 100% every week. There is time to rest and recover, often for a week or more, and you and I can apply this principle to our routines as well.
What is unloading?
There is a lot of disagreement on this matter! For some people, unloading is a complete break from training, like a vacation. You take a full week’s break, that’s all.
For others, unloading is less intense than your normal work. You can do the same sets and reps, but the weights are not as heavy. On the other hand, deloading can reduce volume, so you will be doing fewer reps and sets, but the weights can be just as heavy as usual.
Which type of relief to use will depend on the type of work you have been doing up to this point, the reason for the relief, and your (or your coach’s) training philosophy.
When to unload?
There are several ways strength athletes (and recreational athletes like you and me) use unloading. Here are the main ones:
- Prepare for the competition. To do your best, you need to reduce fatigue and not rust . Peak usually involves a reduction in volume (fewer reps and sets) while maintaining a lot of weight.
- To introduce new lifts or targets. You are more likely to get sick if you do something new and intense, so introducing new exercises or new types of workouts often makes sense during a week of lighter workouts (in this context, this is sometimes referred to as the “main week”.)
- To recover from a hard training block. Some programs have a built-in week of discharge; in other cases, you can choose an additional week after the end of the program and before starting the next one.
- As part of a long-term plan to combat fatigue. Even if your training hasn’t been particularly hard, you can spray occasionally over several weeks offload to make sure you don’t fatigue unnecessarily.
- In response to perceived stress. Some programs do not include scheduled unloading weeks, and it is up to the athlete to decide when he needs a break.
How do I know if I’m doing everything right?
If you are working with a coach, ask him about their overall plans for you. The unloads (or lack thereof) should be part of the puzzle and have a reason why they are programmed the way they are.
If you are running programs that you find on the Internet or in books, think about how each approach approaches unloading. Some may include offloads and some may not. If you are programming for yourself, you can take inspiration from other programs, but you should also use common sense and ask yourself how you are feeling.
Unloading is a common tool for fighting fatigue, but not the only one . Your program can adjust the volume from week to week, for example, so that you feel refreshed. In this case, unloading may not be necessary. Even if you’re preparing for a competition, deloading is a very common way to reduce fatigue and ensure good performance, but that doesn’t mean you always need to deload before a competition. (For example, it is common to “train” in low priority competitions.)
Unloading is really just a training tool, so make sure your choice of unloading matches your body’s needs.