Take a Deload Week to Let your Body Recover Faster

Bodybuilders are eager to get bigger as fast as possible. Training hard, resting enough, following a right diet, taking supplements, choosing best exercises for each group of muscles, focusing on basic/isolation exercises, using a split program training and many others subjects is that kind of stuff which every bodybuilder know. Or at least should know. You will find countless advice and tricks on how to build muscle and how to get the shape you dreamed of for a long time.

And despite you think you know everything about gaining muscle mass, you will find out new tactics that surprise in regard of their usefulness. One method which perfectly assists in building muscle mass and is underestimated by many bodybuilders is deload. Deload is a planned period of time when you decrease the intensity or volume of your training routine.

It has a one-week length, during which you should not stop any physical activity, but just train in a more easy time. This is a kind of active resting. Deload time is especially necessary for those who train actively, with heavy weights for a long time already with no pauses.

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Since weightlifting training put a big stress on muscles and ligaments, deload periods will relieve the stress, let you recover faster and get you ready for further gains. As a bodybuilder, you know that along with physique aspect, weightlifting training get you tired mentally as well.

If you find hard to concentrate, feel no desire about going to the gym, experience sadness and get less confident in yourself, than taking a deload time is what you need. It allows you to recover mentally while keeping your muscle growth.

Bodybuilders are always at risk of getting overtrained. When you work out at fully extend, pushing every time the own limits and wanting to get more and more from each training session is hard do not get your body exhausted. We were not created to put on big efforts for long periods of time with no breaks.

Must Read: Beat Overtraining For More Muscle Gains

This is unnatural and every time you ignore this aspect you risk to get injured. Choosing to have a one week of active recovery will help you to address all the issues caused by overtraining and get fresh and full of forces for a new round of heavy training.

De-load time is very beneficial for getting through muscle stagnation process. When seems that training hard gives no results and your muscles refuse to get bigger than a de-load week is what you need. During it muscles get the lighter load, moving them into another regime. Coming back after this time to previous workout routine you feel stronger, and you will feel your muscles working better.

When is Time to Take a Deload Time

There several cases when taking a deload break is recommended:

-If you lift weight for a long time with no pause;

-If you feel mentally tired and have no desire for any physical activity;

-If you reach a muscle stagnation stage;

-Set a deload break in your workout routine.

If you are a young weightlifter with few experiences in the gym, then your body is able to hard and have enough resources for  a long time ahead. That’s why you are advised to take a deload time at every few months. On the hand, bodybuilders who lift weights for years, get tired faster and need more time for recovery will need to organize deload pause more often. The best would be once at every few weeks.

The basic factors who tells how often to take an easy week training are the complexity of your workout and the time you need to recover. It is considered that for most of the bodybuilders taking a one-week deload at every five, maximum eight weeks is quite enough. But you are free to set another frequency if this one doesn’t fit your needs. The core idea is that you have to include such a break in your long-term workout routine and stick to it.

What you Have to do During the Deload Week:

Deload week is dedicated to a light training, through reducing at half either the workout intensity or the number of sets and reps. Thereby, you can choose to do the same number of sets and reps as in case of regular training but reducing the weights you work with at half. Another way is to keep training with the same weight but to perform less number of sets and reps for each movement.

Focus on muscles groups that usually you pay not attention on. Also, you can choose to base your deload week on more cardio exercises, and a few lifting movements. The best would be to try to reduce weighs you work with since the goal of deload time is to get off stress from joints. And this will not be achieved if you continue to train with big weight as you usually do.

Whatever you will choose, you have to keep in mind that this is a light training and you have not to get exhausted once you finish it. You give your body time to recover, but you do it in an active manner.

How Your Diet Looks like when Deloading:

We get accustomed to asking about diet specific every time we do a change in our workout program. And this is absolutely correct since following a proper diet is as important as the training itself. No diet, no gains it is.

Must Read: Incorporating The Correct Diet Plan That Complements Your Bodybuilding Cycle!

When it comes to deload week, diet crucially changed. You have two solutions, and both of them give results in different people. In one hand you can follow the same rich in calorie, proteins and carbs diet as during your regular training weeks. Since your body needs to recover, it will use all these sources with success.

On the other hand, you can adopt a soft diet beginning in the middle of the deload week. This is because in the first part of the week your body will need resources to recover after weightlifting training of the previous week. After this necessities are lower, and can easily switch to a soft diet regime. In most, not the diet is the key factor that makes a deload week very beneficial for your body.

Reduce the intensity or number of sets&reps you usually do at the half and enjoy more cardio exercises. And more important: do not wait too long for taking a deload. Set it once at every five or eight weeks to make sure you never miss it. Your body will be very grateful to you for this and the results achieved after this would be more than impressive.