Study finds pre planned deload provides no benefit

[TheSteamboat]

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/371499885_Gaining_more_from_doing_less_The_effects_of_a_one-week_deload_period_during_supervised_resistance_training_on_muscular_adaptations_Gaining_more_from_doing_less_The_effects_of_a_one-week_deload_period_

Thought this would be a fun discussion. Pre planned deloads never made any sense to me personally, and I’ve never planned time off (just when sick). Doing less and expecting more never made sense to me. Especially when on PEDs.

Curious, do any of you pre plan deloads? If so, why?

 

[luki7788]

deloads and programming are ok, but in strength training such as powerlifting or strongman, bodybuilding and hypertrophy are a different beast - I don't know any good bodybuilder who does planned deloads - you just feel weak and have a bad day? you do a lighter workout or an extra day off - all top bodybuilders do this

 

[TheSteamboat]

deloads and programming are ok, but in strength training such as powerlifting or strongman, bodybuilding and hypertrophy are a different beast - I don't know any good bodybuilder who does planned deloads - you just feel weak and have a bad day? you do a lighter workout or an extra day off - all top bodybuilders do this

Agreed completely

 

[Fleezy]

or an extra day off

Yep this is me

 

[narta]

Preplanned deloads are for CNS and ligaments recuperation not muscle.

 

[TheSteamboat]

Preplanned deloads are for CNS and ligaments recuperation not muscle.

Still, why not just wait till you feel like you need it instead of pre planning?

 

[qbkilla]

Spot on, one thing I've learned from the board keep shit as simple as possible. Mike Israetel has some good stuff but the whole premise of ramping up volume until you need a deload then for 1 week exactly cut volume 60 % and loads by 56.88%...silly. take a day off, or a few, as needed. They also say if to bump up to maintenance, I prefer to use a week off to drop calories a bit and burn some fat. On AAS a week of no training on lower calories isn't going to eat all your muscle, give the digestion system a break too and the oven/microwave.

 

[Yousef12O2]

I think the idea of deload is stupid. If you feel burnt out by all the training and 6 meals a day just take a week or two off the gym. You aren't going to lose muscle that took you years to build in a couple of weeks.

 

[SunriseRep]

Let your body do the speaking. I usually take a week off after three months. This has been good to me for years.

 

[xpoc]

Glad I saw this. Coincidentally, I have been dealing with balky knees lately. This is something I have NEVER had an issue with despite lifting hard & consistently since 1984. Knees have always been bullet proof. A few weeks ago both started aching and last week I thought I must have torn a meniscus or something in my left knee because I could barely walk. Since there was no "ah ha" moment and I was experiencing discomfort in BOTH knees I examined what I had changed. The only thing I did differently was beginning training calves 6x per week (just 3 sets per day to failure) and doing heavy loaded stretches afterward. That is when the lightbulb came on in my head that the volume/frequency/intensity was too high and it was actually overtraining the calves that were leading to knee pain. So, I took a week off all weight training and all of a sudden....my knees are feeling MUCH better. I am a believer in DELOADS, but IMO the key is figuring out how far you can go before you are forced to take one due to injury. In this case, I went too far...fortunately no permanent injury. But, in the future I will deload once I start getting abnormal symptoms, such as balky knees or whatever.

 

[aHarness]

I’ve never intentionally deloaded. If I go in and am feeling off, I just back off the weight used and use it as an opportunity to really focus on the tempo, squeeze, connection (more so than usual)

 

[buck]

I always let nature decide my deloads.

 

[Fleezy]

I’ve found that since I cut out rack pulls and squats (instead doing hack squats)

My cns seems to recover a bit more quickly - permitting me to train more frequently - as it is no longer the limiting factor

 

[Mufasa123]

From the abstract it seems the authors don't know enough about programming in the first place to even be conducting such a study. They aren't using deloading properly nor is deloading advised as a total break from training. Such programs are not beneficial except to highly trained individuals and become more and more inefficient/time waste the less experience one has. Though I doubt their programming or trainees was setup to warrant a deload in the first place. Welcome to the field of exercise science - these are the kingly one eyed men in the land of the blind.

This steaming pile of shit is best disregarded as they'd do the field more good by simply never publishing it.

 

[VaginaBoob89]

deloads and programming are ok, but in strength training such as powerlifting or strongman, bodybuilding and hypertrophy are a different beast - I don't know any good bodybuilder who does planned deloads - you just feel weak and have a bad day? you do a lighter workout or an extra day off - all top bodybuilders do this

Optimal bbing training is not particularly stressful on the CNS or connective tissue in the same way strongman, pling, or olympic weightlifting are. And even in sessions where you are much weaker than average, you can still do productive hypetrophy training, whereas this is far less the case for those other sports.

 

[Big Dave Smith]

There’s no need to preplan a deload. Deloads CAN BE great if you’ve been going hard 6-10 weeks. Maybe you tried progressing in load, intensity, or volume and your body is starting to break down. A few days isn’t going to cut it, so a week or two of purposefully cutting the intensity and volume is pretty great.

You should know your body well though, and be pushing very hard for an extended period of time. Otherwise, fatigue and recovery management can keep things going for a while.

You can’t always bang out exercises with high systemic fatigue. You can’t always train balls to the wall. If you feather in days where you use exercises with less systemic fatigue, you’re going to extend your growth periods for much longer.

Also, grinder reps and breathing out your sets (8 squats… breathe a few times… 4 squats… breathe… 3 squats… breath a few times) will totally fuck your fatigue/recovery if your doing it all the time.

Tough guys who want to be morally superior will disagree, but mostly out of emotional attachment and stubbornness.

 

[aHarness]

Also, grinder reps and breathing out your sets (8 squats… breathe a few times… 4 squats… breathe… 3 squats… breath a few times) will totally fuck your fatigue/recovery if your doing it all the time.

Agreed… but goddamn if hitting those isn’t satisfying after every now and then

 

[narta]

Still, why not just wait till you feel like you need it instead of pre planning?

Because when you feel it it's too late, CNS will be overloaded. I am strictly speaking in powerlifting territory here, bodybuilding doesn't tax the CNS high enough to warrant pre planned deloads

 

[luki7788]

Because when you feel it it's too late, CNS will be overloaded. I am strictly speaking in powerlifting territory here, bodybuilding doesn't tax the CNS high enough to warrant pre planned deloads

This is exactly what I'm writing about - powerlifting and bodybuilding training methodology are two different beasts

 

[TheSteamboat]

Because when you feel it it's too late, CNS will be overloaded. I am strictly speaking in powerlifting territory here, bodybuilding doesn't tax the CNS high enough to warrant pre planned deloads

Oh very much so in that scenario… apologies I seem to forget we don’t all bodybuild here