How to Strategically Add a Deload Week Into Your Training (and When You Should)

You’ve probably heard of the saying work smarter, not harder. That’s the idea behind a deload week, a period of around five to seven days when you intentionally scale back your training in order to give your body an opportunity to recover and bounce back even stronger.

That can sound a little counterintuitive: Do less to gain more? But competitive strength athletes and coaches swear by it, saying it prevents injuries, improves performance, and even builds muscle and strength. Plus, preliminary research looks promising that strategic breaks in training really can deliver big benefits.

Here’s how doing less in the short term can help your athletic performance in the long run. 

What Is a Deload Week?

A deload week is a week when you reduce your training intensity to give yourself time to recover from rigorous workouts, says Peloton Instructor and NYT Bestselling Author, Tunde Oyeneyin.

There are only a handful of scientific studies on deloading currently. But one 2023 paper in Sports Medicine - Open defines it as follows: “Deloading is a period of reduced training stress designed to mitigate physiological and psychological fatigue, promote recovery, and enhance preparedness for subsequent training.”

There are a couple of different ways to approach “reduced training stress,” explains physical therapist and certified strength and conditioning specialist Schuyler Archambault, owner of Arch Physical Therapy and Fitness. One is scaling back in volume, meaning you do fewer workouts per week or fewer reps and sets during your workouts. The other is scaling back in effort, meaning you do less challenging exercises during your deload workouts or lift a lower amount of weight than you’ve been used to. “Changing the weight changes the intensity, but decreasing the sets changes the volume,” Archambault says. 

Sometimes, a deload week might include both. Maybe you decrease your weight but you’re still feeling sore and tired after a lifting workout. You might decide to decrease your reps or sets at that point, she adds.

When Should You Take a Deload Week, Ideally?

The best time to take a deload week is when you notice your progress is stalling. Maybe you’re having a hard time lifting heavier weights or banging out one more rep, or you feel sluggish instead of energized by your favorite cycling class. “Sometimes you just need a break to be able to tolerate building [up] again,” Archambault says.

In a 2024 survey of nearly 300 competitive strength athletes in Sports Medicine - Open, participants took their deload weeks “when performance stalled or during periods of increased muscle soreness or joint aches.”

But it also might be a good idea to take a deload week when you’re going through an emotionally stressful time. The pressure of, say, transitioning to a new job, ending a relationship, or grieving a loved one “impacts every aspect of your life,” Archambault says, and is a good time to try a form of activity that’s less intense than your usual workout routine. If you can plan ahead around a challenging time on the horizon, you can decide to scale back then. “It's not going to be the most beneficial time to just keep pushing,” she says.

The Benefits of Doing Deload Weeks

It’s tempting to want to keep pushing no matter what. But easing up on the throttle pays off. “Proper recovery from deloading can help prevent injury and improve overall fitness performance,” Tunde says. “The purpose of deloading is to help avoid overtraining, prevent injury, and improve performance.”

Here are a few more benefits of deload weeks.

Can You Gain Muscle During a Deload Week?

You need rest days no matter what to gain muscle, and a deload week can be that little extra edge of recovery that helps you get there. Exercise breaks your muscles down; it’s in the way your muscles repair themselves that they grow back bigger and stronger. “So if you’re never giving them the time to build back up, you’re not going to be able to progress,” Archambault says.

“It’s not necessarily that you just built strength in a week, but you decreased the load on your nervous system, your muscles were able to fully recover, and you’re now able to maximally perform,” Archambault says. And don’t worry: You won’t lose your gains in a week of less intense workouts, either, according to a small 2024 study in PeerJ. Although the study showed some differences in strength gains (the study group that did not use a deload week had slightly more muscle strength), no major differences in muscle hypertrophy were found in the group that incorporated a deload week.

Deloading Improves Fitness Performance

“A successful deload week can result in fitness gains both in strength and conditioning once full volume/intensity is restored,” Tunde says. 

A deload week is especially good at helping you bust through a plateau, Archambault says. “If you actually just take one step back and lighten the intensity for a short period of time, you are then going to be able to increase faster,” she says. Think of it as one step back, two steps forward, she says.

It Helps You Avoid Overtraining and Injury

If you push yourself too hard for too long without a break, you could risk overdoing it, sometimes called overtraining. While there is no official definition of overtraining, you might find yourself dealing with nagging injuries, excessive fatigue, or feeling heavier or more sluggish than usual. A deload week is a short break for your body, which gives your muscles and joints time to recover and (hopefully) stop any aches and pains from developing into full-blown injuries.

Deloading Shakes Off Mental Fatigue

“Deload weeks can help rebuild not only physical performance, but also mental fatigue,” Tunde says. “Deloading may serve as a shake up in the routine, even feeling like a ‘win’ compared to your normal lifting cycle.”

If you’re verging on burnout from high-intensity training, your sleep might suffer, your energy might lag, and you might not even have the mental energy to prep healthy meals, Archambault says. A less intense week every now and then might help you free up the bandwidth to get all these other healthy habits back on track.

How Deload Weeks Work and How to Try Them

When Archambault works with clients, she plans periodic deload weeks into their programming. Deloading is pretty unique to each person, their goals, and how well they’re recovering between workouts, so working with a certified professional is a smart move. They can help you figure out exactly how much weight to cut, how many reps and sets to do, and what types of alternative forms of activity might give your brain and body the biggest break.

If you’re deloading on your own, start by deciding how you want to scale back: You might cut back on reps and sets, drop weight, exercise on fewer days, or all of the above. Generally, athletes scale back by up to 50 percent when deloading, Tunde says.

In the Sports Medicine - Open survey, the athletes still did the same number of workouts per week. But they lifted lighter weights, did fewer reps per set, and did fewer sets per week of their typical exercises.

Here are a few other examples of how that might work:

How Often Should You Do a Deload Week, Ideally?

Your schedule may be different from your gym buddy’s or your coach’s. “An individual's deloading frequency will vary based on their goals and training program,” Tunde says. “On average, deloading occurs every 4-12 weeks or so,” she says. The athletes in the Sports Medicine - Open survey deloaded every five to six weeks for about six days.

What to Do After a Deload Week

After you deload, “transition steadily back into intensity,” Tunde says. Be patient and give yourself some time to ramp back up. “It may take a few workouts to return to your pre-deload starting point,” she says. 

If you’re working on building up in weight on a specific exercise, like a deadlift, you might want to do one extra warm-up set with no or lower weight after your deload week, Archambault adds.

Who Should Do a Deload Week?

Deload weeks are most common among serious weightlifters who benefit from scaling down in weight for a few days in order to ramp back up even higher when they return to full intensity.

Athletes who play team sports also benefit from taking a little time off and shaking up their routines. This often happens naturally after their seasons are over, Archambault says. “It’s more structured when your deload is going to be compared to the general population,” she says.

But anyone can benefit from a brief period of less intense exercise, Archambault says—and sometimes this happens pretty naturally, too. “I see some of my clients have natural deload weeks when they’re on vacation,” she says. “I'll tell them, ‘Just go enjoy your week. Do some other forms of activity. Go on the hikes you want to go on. Don't worry so much about the structured exercise. And they typically come back ready and recharged to get back to it the next week.”

The Takeaway 

A deload week is a period of a few days when you scale back the intensity and/or volume of your training to give your brain and body some time to destress. This rest and recovery can help you come back to your usual training mentally refreshed, less sore, and ready to bust through plateaus. It’s a good idea to take a deload week every one to three months (or whenever you’re feeling on the verge of burnout or excessive fatigue) and scale back by up to 50 percent of your effort. That will look different for everyone, depending on your goals and how recovered you are.

This content is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute individualized advice. It is not intended to replace professional medical evaluation, diagnosis, or treatment. Seek the advice of your physician for questions you may have regarding your health or a medical condition. If you are having a medical emergency, call your physician or 911 immediately.