If you think about the keys to staying healthy, you probably imagine that you need to spend enough time in the gym. However, many fitness influencers claim that: steal time From the gym every 6-8 weeks – Known as “Deload Week” – In fact, this is the key to improving your fitness gains.
Deload weeks are mostly about lowering the intensity of your workouts. These are usually done during intense training. The clear purpose of a deload week is to energize your body. time to recover Free yourself from fatigue and damage caused by long-term intense training.
Due to intense training and large amounts of training, accumulate damage It’s in our muscle tissue. This damage is an important part of the process of improving fitness gains, but these improvements only occur if the body has had time to recover.
During exercise, small tears occur in the muscles, causing the fibers to be confused After intense training. This causes an inflammatory response in the muscle tissue, resulting in a longer period of “unloading” (Rest or do low-intensity exercise). This inflammation is actually important. promote positive change It affects our muscles and leads to improved fitness.
However, training without adequate rest can leave your muscles in a slightly permanently damaged state. Inflammation does not go away, negative change – Muscles can no longer use oxygen efficiently, resulting in decreased performance, etc.
By giving your muscles a chance to recover, you set them up for success.
Danger of overtraining
Many avid gym goers may be afraid to take time off from the gym for fear of losing the gains they’ve gained. However, research has shown that our muscle genes contain memory traces, effectively retaining genes involved in muscle growth. semi-ready state. This means that our muscles are ready to respond faster and better to future training and promote growth after a period of rest.
Even after long periods of non-loading (up to 7 weeks), muscle fitness can be restored to peak state, and in some cases even beyond. This is true even if you lose some muscle strength during this period. Not only that, but you can get back to your best state twice as fast as it took you to get to that level in the first place.
Another reason why it’s so important to rest from intense training is that lack of rest can lead to muscle soreness. overtraining syndrome. Overtraining syndrome is a prolonged period of fatigue and deconditioning caused by excessive or intense training without adequate rest. It can take weeks to months (or even years) to overcome.
Symptoms of overtraining syndrome include fatigue, decreased performance, and mood disorders. These symptoms develop gradually. In other words, overtraining syndrome only becomes apparent when you fall into its throes. That’s why getting enough rest is essential during training.
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It’s difficult to say how common overtraining syndrome is because the symptoms are so vague. Some studies indicate that overtraining syndrome may affect as few as 10% of elite athletes, but the incidence may be even higher. 60% higher For the most competitive athletes.
Is it a rest day or a few weeks of lightening?
It’s clear that recovery time is important for both fitness and overall health. When you’re doing a lot of work at the gym, you need to make sure to include enough time for recovery in your workout plan.
Deload weeks differ from rest days in that they typically involve no exercise (or only very light exercise) once or twice a week. Deload weeks tend to be as follows: involves some trainingHowever, do a much lower intensity than usual, doing about 50% less than usual, or reduce the intensity of your workouts by about 20%.
Rest days and deloading weeks both help your body recover from training. This is important for improving fitness. It’s not an either/or case. For example, if you are training intensely for a marathon, Ironman, or CrossFit competition, you should schedule weekly rest days. In addition to that, a deload week should also be implemented. If you go to a recreational gym and do less intense exercise about 1 to 3 times a week, the rest you get from this type of exercise schedule is probably enough.
Read more: Rest days are important for fitness – here’s why, according to science.
Fitness influencers suggest that you should include a deload week in your training schedule every four to eight weeks. This roughly matches the following Experts say it will take 4-6 weeks.. However, you should schedule deload weeks as needed. If you start noticing that your performance is no longer improving, or maybe even getting worse, it may be time for a deload week.
You shouldn’t have a training plan that’s so strict that you can’t back off when you need to. Deloading for a few weeks will benefit your health as well as your performance.
