A Sample Deload Week Programming
for strength athletes
I am not a proponent of scheduled deloads. In my experience, these types of deloads are often used to compensate for programming that does not allow for sufficient recovery during a training week.
However, it is important to understand how to deload, because training cycles are never perfect. You will need to adjust for life events, injuries, and other circumstances that affect your recovery in unpredictable ways. If you program for yourself, it can be helpful to deload before or after a block of programming to to help evaluate the effectiveness of a new stimulus.
Below, you'll find my preferred three-day deload week. You can try it out for yourself as written , or you can modify it to fit your needs.
A Sample Deload Week
I've listed variations of the squat, bench press, and deadlift in this sample deload programming. If you already know variations that work well for you, you can stick with those, or you can simply perform the competition movements. However, if you're programming for yourself, or you'd like to try something new, I suggest choosing variations from the article series linked below and using your deload as an opportunity to expose weaknesses and help plan future training blocks.
Day 1
Squat Variation. Work up to a set of 3 at VESP 7.
Bench Variation. Work up to a single at VESP 8. Then take 80% of that weight for a set of 3.
Lats. Choose a movement you’re bad at and perform 3 sets of 10 with a weight you could use for 12-15.
Abs. Choose a bodyweight movement for 3-5 sets of max time or reps.
Day 2
Deadlift Variation. Perform 5 sets of 1 with 65% of your 1-rep max competition deadlift.
Shoulders. Stick with your favorite side and rear raise variations for 2 sets of 20 reps each.
Triceps. Choose a light movement like pushups or band pushdowns and accumulate 100 total reps as quickly as possible.
Abs. Choose a weighted movement for 2-3 sets of 10 reps.
Day 3
Active Rest. Choose a few movements from this playlist and throw in a 20 minutes or so of low-intensity, low-impact cardiovascular work.
I hope you found this post helpful! If you’d like more advice on programming, you can register for a custom training split. Anyone who registers this week will receive a free course of their choice from my website!