Deloading – When less is more

Deloading is a method used in strength and conditioning to allow recovery, reduce injury risk and therefore improve the likelihood of better long term performance. Tapering is a similar, longer process to allow recovery usually before an athletic event. We implement these by reducing volume temporarily for a short period before competition or before moving on to the next training block. This must be done properly to balance between maintaining desired results and allowing appropriate recovery to avoid overtraining & reduce fatigue for performance.

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“Adaptive changes in response to exercise occur only during rest, thus improper post exercise recovery may cause residual fatigue, and as a consequence the athlete may not reach the supercompensation phase. Systemic residual fatigue carries on to overtraining, defined as a state of overstress or failure to adapt to an exercise load and/or to a drop in performance level. In extreme cases, when not compensated it leads to the overtraining syndrome” (Zajac et al. 20015)

 

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Make sure you follow a programme utilising deloading for better long term results.

Who doesn’t want more results from less effort?

 

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Reference

 

Zając, A., Chalimoniuk, M., Maszczyk, A., Gołaś, A., & Lngfort, J. (2015). Central and peripheral fatigue during resistance exercise – a critical review. Journal of Human Kinetics, 49, 159-169. doi: 10.1515/hukin-2015-0118.