Mark Brown
December 22, 2021
De-load and de-volume weeks are a reality for any lifting program. They can be both frustrating and necessary for one’s overall benefit. The easiest thing in strength training is to push relentlessly once the neural connection has been established. The feeling of improvement and increased lifts is an easy high, especially the latter stages of a program where physically and mentally peaking is actually occurring. That progress comes with the cost of the body breaking down at a greater rate. De-load weeks function as a regulator to help the body deal with the effort and intensity of strength training. Those weeks are related to rest times between sets during lifting sessions. It is incredibly easy to not give oneself enough time between sets, especially heavy ones, because that feeling of a successful lift is very intoxicating. Both resting and de-loads are necessary regulatory acts that must be taken seriously in order to make progress over the months and years of training.
I should start this with explaining a de-load or de-volume is and consists of. It’s as simple as not doing lifting that is as heavy or voluminous work as one has been doing. That may be an intentional act done to get work in while holding back the negative effects lifting has on the body, especially on joints. It might be the body not being able to physically accomplish the lifts one expects to be able to based on previously accomplished results. These de-loads and de-volumes in my experience come at different phases of the training program. The former is more likely to be in play during the middle or end phases of a long 16-week program or longer where one needs lift but also needs to recover more. The latter is much likely at the beginning of one of those programs. That is when I usually experience that particular kind of de-load. It is possible I am misinterpreting it as a de-load because the lifts are either max effort or intensity but I don’t think I am based on the fact I know I was lifting heavier and more voluminously just 3 weeks ago.
Each of those kinds of de-load/de-volume lifts has different physical and mental stresses on them. The start of program de-load coming off a peak normally produces a sessions that take far more days to recover from than later in the program. I attribute that to my body just being more used to the training the muscles are going through. I know the training sessions in the first couple weeks after not lifting for a week or so are extremely hard on the muscles impacted by big complex lifts. My legs are normally shot for 3-4 days after that first big leg and back workout coming back. This was definitely the case when I started the summer and fall programs. During the fall of 2021, I gave myself a week and half off after completing a 12-week powerbuilding program. My first leg and back session Tuesday resulted in me starting to cramp up before I even left the garage. The cramp hit me full on upon getting out of my car to walk into the grocery store 20 minutes later. I missed my second leg and back session that week because my legs were still crazy sore. I trained hard, but I didn’t do anywhere near my normal intensity or volume to get that level of soreness. The same thing happened in December after completing the fall program and taking a week off to recover from illness. In fact, the December session referenced here was very limited in volume so it could have been much more debilitating in terms of recovery time had I done what I normally do. The inevitability of soreness is where the mental training part of this comes forward in importance. To understand what is coming and still going after it like is necessary is the mark of discipline. The part of this de-load/de-volume that can lead to frustration is the competing natures of always wanting to do more and trying to figure out where the stop sign is, which I half joke is not something I do very well. I’ve gotten better at seeing the stop sign in recent months. De-load/de-volume days usually involve more than their normal share of reps-in-reserve and reps not attempted. Upper body de-loads don’t produce the same level of soreness as legs and back do but the work done is decreased. A major part of this period in the training program is rebuilding the neural connection that was interrupted by breaking from lifting. During the fall it took me about 4 weeks to reconnect and once I did I was locked in totally. I’ve found that the first couple weeks of a new program is more demanding mentally than physically, requiring more regulatory acts than later during it. Skipped sessions in this phase will have consequences later.
Later stage de-loads I don’t have as much experience with because I have only done 2 focused programs. The summer program was hard throughout and I did to a peak but not like the one I did in the fall. It was very noticeable how each week of lifts got harder to complete. It got to a point where I had to offload some lifts I was doing. First, the dedicated shoulder event day of log and viking press had to changed to a straight rest day so I went from lifting 5 days to 4. Second, I felt I needed to remove dumbbell presses from the chest days as last supplemental lifts. I could have kept them in but I would have had to have lowered the weight to keep doing them. Dumbbell press wasn’t the only lift I eliminated from my program for those 4 weeks. I stopped doing log press as the main shoulder supplemental. This was a cue for me that a de-load or de-volume week would have become necessary if I was on a longer program. I don’t have a dedicated programming plan as of yet so late de-loads and de-volumes will come into play probably February and March if my weekly lifting sessions progress like they did in the fall.
The other self-regulatory act I want to bring up is the much shorter term cousin of the de-load: resting between sets. In most areas, these 2 concepts don’t belong in the same essay but I think it is important to talk about because rest between sets is the most immediate act of regulation lifters do. Managing the workload is amongst the most important tasks a lifter completes, whether in the short term or in the long term. The temptation of eliminating rest time during heavy sets is very real. The adrenaline that comes from a successful set creates a desire to just get back under the bar or whatever the case may be requires physical and mental management. At lower percentages limited rest between sets is another way to vary up the training and can be done quite safely. I do it toward the end of individual sessions to work through accessories quickly and superset them to be as efficient with time as possible. Most of my sessions are close to 2 hours or slightly over because most of my main and supplemental lifts are done above 70% 1RM. I tend to wait 4-6 minutes between heavy sets of deadlifts or squats and 3-5 on bench press. I think that’s enough time between sets to recover for the loads I am lifting. That might well change if I was lifting greater loads. Sometimes I pace around and other times I sit until it’s time to go. I don’t yet have a steady thought on that part of it. The takeaway that I have after almost every session is that it is harder and harder to give myself the proper rest time between sets because I love getting after it. I am always very aware of the double edged sword that is my drive.
In many ways, resting between sets and de-load/de-volume sessions are a battle of motivation vs discipline. I’ve written before that the latter is the stronger of the two concepts and I still hold that belief but motivation run amok is an extremely powerful source of mental energy. It has to be managed to maintain the useful qualities it has while minimizing the risks associated with it. I haven’t had a proper injury since I pulled a muscle in my lower chest right on a rib while doing dumbbell flies the fall before I joined Aspen. That injury and near misses, mostly doing hip hinge movements, were all the result of me letting my discipline slide long enough to tweak or pull a muscle because I wanted to push the load or volume. They were painful lessons that help me to this day by helping me see the damned stop and speed limit signs. Motivation run amok can also lead to burnout, which is the mental version of a long term injury. I have never personally felt lifting but have in other areas. Instead of chasing an ever higher linear progress line, the best way forward, in my opinion, is to embrace the de-loads and rest times to help with both the mental and physical stresses one is imposing on themselves. That self-regulation is absolutely necessary.
Life Through Lifting 