Exactly When Do I Deload?

June 29, 2009 on 12:49 pm | In Strength Training | 1 Comment

Question:  Should I plan deloading weeks for the athletes I train.  They are mostly high school age boys and girls.

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Answer:  No and yes, but mostly no…

Here is something I have learned from running my gym over the last years.  Deloading weeks will schedule themselves with high school age people. 

So, yes there should be a deloading time to let them recover, but no you won’t be the one scheduling it.  Chances are that they will have a vacation,  a tournament, some family gathering, or anything along those lines that will take them away from working out for a period of time. 

Looks like a good place to back off training for a week!

They are going to miss a session or two due to those obligations. Give some a light 10-15 minute workout to perform while they out of town (unless it is for a competition).  Use these weeks to deload the athletes. 

If you schedule a deload after, let’s say, 6 weeks of lifting, and then a week later they need to go on vacation, you just wasted half a month of training. 

Same goes for your own training.  If you know you have to go to the in-laws house for half a week during Thanksgiving, work that into your training schedule as opposed to going by specific weeks and days of training vs deloading. 

Sure, you can be proactive and ask your athletes when they will miss training and work that into your schedule, but again, take into account their obligations. 

They will appreciate your flexibility, and you will be giving them a better chance strength gains.

- Joe Hashey, CSCS -