How to Deload

I am currently at the end of a training block and this week I am deloading. I have received numerous questions on social media asking how I deload, how often I deload and how to implement one. So I figured I'd do a blog post answering some of these questions.

What is the purpose of a deload?

The purpose of a deload is recovery. This covers our nervous system, energy levels, soft tissues and joints. If you've been over reaching (usually volume related) for a while our bodies tend to start showing signs of wear and tear. Joints can start to get a bit sore, sometimes we get injured, energy levels can drop and performance/strength can become impaired. A deload is a planned recovery strategy which reverses these things to some extent and allows our bodies to return to normal and often super-compensate or become stronger.

How do you deload?

I have used a variety of structures to deload over the years. Currently what I do is the following:

- reduce load on secondary lifts to 85 - 90 % of normal (primary lifts are already running at reduced intensities constantly)
- reduce sets by 1 for all secondary exercises

^ note - this works well with my set up, but it might not be right for you

In general a deload means a reduction in load/intensity. It can be coupled with a reduction in volume. A good range to work with is to use anywhere between 60 and 90 % of the load you would normally use. You should not be training to failure and should aim for the lower end of the rep range you would normally be able to do with the full weight.

For example. Let's say normally you can bench press 100 kg for 8 - 10 reps. On your deload you decide to work with 70% of normal loads. So you would use 70 kg and you would stop your sets at 8 reps (yes even though you can probably do 15 + reps with 70 kg if you went to failure).

How often should you deload?

The answer is going to depend on how you have your program set up. If you are pushing one or more of the important training variables (volume, intensity, frequency) fairly hard and over reaching then you probably want to use deloads reasonably frequently. As a general rule I like to deload every 4 - 10 weeks.

How long should a deload be?

A deload can be as short as a few days (half a week) and it could go for longer than a week if you are very over reached.  Most commonly a one week deload will be fine for recovery.

Why don't I just take a week off instead?

You could take a week off from lifting if you want to. The problem with not training at all is you are removing the stimulus which maintains your muscle mass and strength completely. Whether or not you detrain adaptations and to what extent depends largely on how long you've been lifting and how advanced you are. A more advanced lifter is less likely to experience muscle and strength loss in a week compared to a beginner. I would say that if you are at the point where you are hating going to the gym and you need a mental break in order to come back fresh then take the week off. If you are injured then take the week off. If you are going on vacation and will find it difficult to train while away then take the week off. Otherwise the best option to maintain muscle and strength while you recover is a deload strategy.

Will I lose muscle if I deload?

No, you won't. You don't need to be training at maximum intensity 100% of the time. It's actually detrimental to long term progress to do that.

What if I don't feel like I need a deload?

Sometimes you might legitimately not need to deload in that you haven't really trained hard enough or long enough at a time to truly over reach. Often times though we are just subtly over reached or we have been in an over reached state for a while and it just feels "normal". It isn't until we apply a recovery strategy like a deload and come out the other side that we realise how much better we feel and that performance really was down. If in doubt, deload anyway.

Are deloads and tapers the same?

No, they are not the same thing. A deload typically involves a reduction in load or intensity whilst maintaining volume and sometimes involves a reduction in volume. A taper keeps intensity high and reduces volume. Both are recovery strategies but are applied differently. They can be used in isolation or together eg 1 week deload, 1 week taper. Usually if you taper following a deload you will see increases in strength and performance.

Summary

- Purpose = recovery
- Intensity = 60 - 90 %, no failure
- Frequency = once every 4 - 10 weeks
- Duration = 1 week on average

Muscle Academy contact details:

Email - info@muscleacademy.com.au
Website - http://www.muscleacademy.com.au
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/MuscleAcademy
Instagram and Twitter - @evansoooon

- Evan

Bodybuilding - Art or Science?

Client Spotlight

Before I start this blog I want to congratulate Muscle Academy client Kimberly Salvador who competed in and placed first at her powerlifting meet over the past weekend. This is a great achievement on it's own but even more exceptional is that it was completed whilst in the middle of contest prep. So I'm extending a special congratulations to Kim on her accomplishment.

Kimberly with her award (top), deadlifting (bottom left) and bench pressing (bottom right)

Bodybuilding - Art or Science?

 

Is bodybuilding an art or science? I think we could finds proponents of both sides but in my opinion there are aspects of each which contribute to bodybuilding. I'm all for evidence based nutrition and training, however I think sometimes those of us who er on the side of science can go too far and completely ignore or disregard where experience and anecdote can provide us with some value. We will ask "where is the evidence?". On the other end of course we have the people (the bros) who are completely ignorant to whether there is any real evidence supporting methods and instead prefer to rely entirely on experience. Ideally in my opinion there is a happy medium.

What I think we do get from science is a good ball park or starting point. Examples could include guidelines for protein intake or training volume (how many reps to perform per muscle group, per workout). When considering this information we should look at the body of evidence, realise what the limitations of the studies may be, look at the relevance of the studied population to ourselves, realise there are usually outliers at both ends of the study data, and draw conclusions. 

 

The conclusions drawn from evidence should not be taken as gospel eg  in regards to training volume "everyone should perform 40 - 70 reps per muscle group, per workout". That is a good starting point but it might not apply to every single person out there. There are certainly people who would make better progress on more volume than that and there may indeed be people who will be best suited to start with even less volume than the general recommendations. In most cases they are a good starting point from which you can then adjust if need be.

Another problem with getting too embedded within a scientific approach is that some will completely disregard anything that doesn't have scientific evidence supporting it even when it is pretty damn obvious in practice. Just because evidence doesn't exist supporting the conclusion that X is true, does NOT necessarily mean X is untrue, it just means that at this point in time we can't say for sure that X is true because we don't have enough information. Of course that is a different story if there are multiple studies suggesting that X is untrue. But a lack of evidence doesn't tend to prove anything for or against. Unfortunately people tend to interpret a lack of evidence as being "against" something when in fact it literally means there is just a lack of evidence. Where there is no evidence I think the best thing we can do is make an educated guess based on logic and anecdotal experience until more research is done and evidence clarifying the situation emerges.

Lastly in regards to a scientific approach one problem I can see is losing sight of practicality and perhaps falling victim to paralysis via analysis. You can create the theoretically most perfect plan that will produce the most strength and size gains possible but if that plan is impractical for your personal situation and you can't adhere to it, then it is fairly useless. And again you can spend your time devising the perfect plan and agonising over the details but if you never actually do it, you never get anywhere. The real results come from the doing, not the thinking of the doing, but actually doing the thing over time with consistency.

Now on the other side of the coin we have the people who don't rely on science at all. There is some merit to their approach and of course there are some big problems too. The merit is that people who disregard evidence are generally less likely to fall victim to paralysis by analysis. They just get in and try things. They also rely heavily on personal experience and the reported experience of others which is good in that they try lots of approaches and take a trial and error approach to progress. That trial and error approach is actually something which is valuable to progress especially when combined with tracking (keeping objective and subjective records of progress) and when combined with consistency. I suppose you could call it learning your body, learning what worked well and what didn't work well.

The problem is that often times the trial and error approach is taken too far. People adopting it want to try everything and so end up introducing an element of randomness and chaos (mixing it up). Training is sometimes completely unplanned and unstructured. If progress is not tracked and too many variables are open to change it's really hard to have any idea what factors actually contributed most to success or failure.

 

Another problem arises because no evidence is taken into account. In such situations it's really difficult to structure something which is ideal because there is no starting point to base it off. How much protein should a bro eat? Big Joe at the gym said that eating seven chicken breasts a day worked for him. Without scientific evidence of any kind we are left to rely on this kind of thing which could entirely miss the mark.

We also have the "it works for me" mentality. The problem with this is that when it comes to something like training for hypertrophy a huge number of things work. But "work" is not an absolute term. By that I mean it's not black and white. There isn't just "it works" and "it doesn't work". Obviously things can work to varying degrees. As bodybuilders and people who aspire to improve our physiques we are looking for what will work best (and then of course tailor it to fit our life).

Personally I think the best approach to take is one that rests on an evidence base for training and nutrition. Being able to adhere to the approach with consistency is also very important. Where there are gaps in evidence fill them with a best guess based on logic and experience. Track your progress and adjust the components based on the results you achieve and to suit the context of your big picture plan.

If you need help, consider hiring a coach to take some of the guess work and decision making out of it and to help you learn. I know of this one guy who does offer that kind of thing ...

Muscle Academy contact details:

Email - info@muscleacademy.com.au
Website - http://www.muscleacademy.com.au
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/MuscleAcademy
Instagram and Twitter - @evansoooon

- Evan

Muscle Academy and Off Season Update

Muscle Academy Client Update

I'm going to start off this blog with a mention of client Byron Sakha who just last weekend competed at the ANB Asia Pacific Championships. Byron and I worked together this year for a fairly short contest prep of just 12 weeks duration which can be attributed to Byron's strictness in maintaining a relatively lean physique during his off season. Byron competes in fitness model, already has a developed physique and does some modelling and acting work so staying somewhat lean makes sense for him.

Byron competed across two divisions over two days of the long weekend. Sunday was fitness model and Monday was physique. Fitness model is a smaller, less developed, softer look and physique is a fuller, harder look closer to a bodybuilder. We were able to achieve both looks for Byron by manipulating variables in the peak week plan I set in place. Byron ended up walking away with two placings - a first place in fitness model and a bit of an unexpected fifth place in physique. Overall an excellent result so a big congratulations goes out to Byron and a thanks from me for all his hard work this contest season.

Meanwhile other Muscle Academy competitors are busy getting ready for season B 2015 shows and I'm glad to say all are making steady progress. Keep it up guys and girls!

 

Byron mid way through peak week

Byron killing it on stage at the ANB Asia Pacific Championships
 

Off Season Update

I think this would be a good time to go over where I am with my off season or improvement season. All has been going well. I am getting progressively stronger and making some steady visual improvements to my physique. I have been pretty on point with everything most of the time in regards to both nutrition and training. I'm still working with Alberto Nunez from 3DMJ which I find to be beneficial. Usually I will just coach myself completely during the off season but I think we have a good working relationship whereby I have a lot of input and feedback which goes into the process of running a good plan for my progression and I think that is important.

Nutrition

We have slowly built my calories up to approximately 4000 per day from approximately 3200 per day post contest season. We've never made less than a 200 calorie jump during the process (no super slow reverse diet required ;) ). The path has been fairly smooth. At one point on 3800 calories I was gaining seemingly fast so we dropped it back down to 3600 for a little while. A few months later and I am maintaining or gaining very slowly on 4000, which goes to show that it can take a little while for metabolic rate to completely recover after an extended contest prep.

Right now I'm not aiming for strict macronutrient targets. For the most part I am for a protein target of 250 - 300 grams/day and then I fill the remaining calories with carbs and fat. For the most part I attempt to put a bigger emphasis on carbohydrate and hit around or above 500 grams of carbs. Favoring carbs tends to give me more energy and better pumps during my workouts too. So a day of macros for me might look something like 280 P, 500 C, 95 F.

I am happy with my progress so far. I have stayed relatively lean (emphasis on relatively) compared with previous off seasons whilst simultaneously increasing strength beyond previous levels. So that is a win win.

My weight progress during contest prep and off season

Training

Right now we have gone back to a twice per week split, training over 6 days. The emphasis is more on volume and intensity than on frequency at the moment (although twice/week isn't bad). I have kept training my back 3 times per week and my hamstrings 4 times per week (weak points) and because my shoulders are strong points they get by with the majority of work falling on one day and a small amount of accessory work interspersed throughout the week, tagged onto other workouts.

I have added small amount of volume back in for arms because for me those exercises don't affect my recovery much. However the little bit extra does make a difference to the appearance of my arms. Even doing minimal work, it's not like they atrophy much if at all but they might be a 9/10 and when I do a little extra they are a 10/10 if that makes sense. So long as they don't eat into recovery or start taking away from time I could be spending training other muscle groups then I am happy.

We recently decided to re-run the same training block again as well just since I've been making such good strength gains on it. It makes sense to ride out the gains as long as possible. I have switched in certain exercises and switched out others just for a bit of variety but the basic structure is the same. I also have been encouraged to change exercises for some of the secondary work whenever I feel like it because that kind of stuff won't make a huge difference. Beyond this block we might introduce some more frequency into the programming again but nothing is set in stone at this point.

Progress photos from around a month ago

Evan's Off Season Tips
 

How to have a successful off season:

1. Set goals - One problem many competitors run into especially at the beginning of their off season after a contest season is they don't set goals. This often leads to them to be unsure of what to do next and can cause suboptimal planning or complete lack of planning. I think this is part of why many bodybuilders end up doing powerlifting in their off season because they haven't thought about the areas of their physique they want to improve and haven't created a sound plan to efficiently progress towards developing those areas.

Now, goals could be in regards to a variety of things but I think the best ones are strength goals and weight gain goals. Both are specific, measurable and relevant to physique development. They should be related to both the short and long term and they need to be achievable, realistic and have a time factor put in place to work towards. You might need to be flexible with the timing part because things don't always work out exactly at the rate we expect them to.
 

2. Have a sound approach to nutrition and training - these should be structured according to factors you can personally adhere to (sustainability) and they should prioritise the things that are more important and will get you better results over things that are less important.

3. Be consistent - the more you can get into a routine and get the important things done consistently the better the progress you will make. This doesn't mean being obsessive, it just means ideally practice consistency of priority areas.

4. Be flexible - the other side to being consistent is being flexible. Remember that this is not contest prep and things do not have to be strict and perfect all the time. Enjoying life, making way for other areas and people is important too. One off day out of many won't significantly hurt your progress.

5. Monitor progress - I suggest using some means to monitor your progress (ideally objective measures). Examples are records of weight and girths, tracking macros/calories, training diaries. Subjective measures might include things like the mirror and photographs (also valuable tools). You could take a YOLO approach and track nothing during your off season but the problem is you are somewhat leaving things to chance because if you can't measure it, you can't manage it.

6. Be progressive - the off season is about making improvements and so a mind set which focuses on progress is necessary. This is where your goals and monitoring progress come together. If you have an idea of your ideal rate of gain, if you are doing weigh ins then you will know whether or not you are on track. Aiming to be progressive you can then make adjustments to your nutrition to make progress more likely. The same goes for training. If you have a specific plan for progression and you are recording your training data in a diary or spreadsheet then you will know exactly when it is appropriate to progress.

7. Improvement season - I keep calling it the off season but a better phrase when it comes to bodybuilding is really "improvement season". This is the time we make improvements for the next time you compete. Some competitors will say "but I need time off, I need a mental break" and I do understand that. What I would say to that is the off season shouldn't be the same as contest prep in regards to strictness. It is a time to make other areas of your life important priorities. But it also isn't an all or nothing thing. It's not like off season means "time to take it easy and have a break". You are kidding yourself if you think you are going to wait until contest prep and suddenly start training hard and make improvements while you are dieting. It doesn't work that way. The off season is a time to progress and progress won't occur if you aren't proactive in seeking it out and working for it. However, like I mentioned in point 2 it is important to use a sound and sustainable approach, something that you can adhere to. An average plan executed with consistency is better than a perfect plan executed half assed.
 

Summary:

- set goals

- have a sound approach to training and nutrition

- be consistent

- be flexible

- monitor progress

- be progressive

- improvement season not off season

That's it for this week. Remember you can get in touch with me or follow me via the following avenues. Coaching inquiries are best directed directly to email.

Email - info@muscleacademy.com.au
Website - http://www.muscleacademy.com.au
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/MuscleAcademy
Instagram and Twitter - @evansoooon

- Evan