For many of us avid lifters, we often get incredibly familiar with our lifting schedules. As a result, we never give our bodies more rest than what’s programmed into our routine.
Rest is extremely important for women who lift weights. With a deload week, we can give our bodies more rest than what’s usually programmed into our routine.
However, taking a deload week can be a little more complicated than it seems.
Although you might be eager to get back into the gym after a week off. There’s some caution you’ll want to take when resuming your workout schedule.
That’s why I’ve put together a list of the things you need to be aware of after taking a deload week.
Here’s everything you need to know about resuming exercise after a deload week.
What’s a deload week?
A deload week is extended time off from the gym. Although I call it a deload week, it doesn’t need to actually be a week.
It can be more time or less. However, I wouldn’t recommend too much more since you don’t want to loose strength and muscle.
The goal is to give yourself more time off than you usually take from the gym. Most people take about 1 or 2 rest days a week. So anything more than that can be considered time to “deload”.
Since your body’s used to it, you don’t notice how much stress you’re actually putting your body under. Especially if you’re regularly training intensely and to failure.
When you actually think about it, when’s the last time you gave your body more than 1 or 2 days of rest in a row? You might not even be able to remember.
It’s easy to get caught up in your weekly schedule and routine. Then, you might end up forgetting that your body needs rest, and a lot of it.
I just came off of a deload week, I’m in my first week resuming lifting again. When I tell you my whole body hurts, I’m talking muscles, joints, tendons, everything.
It’s a good hurt, soreness and things like that, but I don’t usually feel this pain every week. Which might seem weird, since I lift every week, but it’s because my body gets used to it.
It’s only because I took the past week off that my body fell a little out of the rhythm. Now that I’m slightly out of rhythm, I can actually feel the impact of my lifts.
This pain and soreness I’m feeling really helps put into perspective how much strain lifting puts on my body. It makes me realize how necessary a deload week is, even if I don’t always physically feel like I need it.
What’s the purpose of a deload week?
The purpose of a deload week is simple. It’s to give your body more time to rest.
Physical rest
Doing this can actually help increase your progress.
There’s reasoning behind this. It’s because if we’re training too hard for too long, then our body starts to become burned out.
You might notice things like you’re not lifting as heavy or can’t do as many reps. Or maybe can’t get close to failure or feel like you’ve hit a plateau.
All of these could be signs that you’re in need of a little extra rest. A deload week can give you just that.
A deload week is meant to help give your body some time to refresh itself. After that, you’re able to come back stronger and continue progressing in your lifts.
Mental rest
The purpose isn’t only to give you physical rest, but also mental rest. We may not realize it, but there’s a lot of mental battles that go into weightlifting. It can become just as taxing mentally as it is physically.
Think about all the mental struggles you face while lifting. You need to convince yourself to show up everyday, even when you don’t want to, and push yourself to train as close to failure as you can.
On top of that, you need to stay consistent even when you feel like you’re not making progress.
Because of this, it’s important to give your mind extra rest as well.
Giving yourself some extra time off will help refresh your brain. It gives you a break from the constant progress and consistency attitude, allowing yourself to slow down and rest. This way, you can come back more motivated and mentally stronger than before.
Some signs you’re mentally in need of a deload week
You might notice yourself feeling unmotivated to go to the gym or you start to dread going. Or maybe you find yourself more irritable and anxious and you aren’t able to train as intensely. These could all be signs that you’re becoming mentally exhausted.
A deload week is a great way to help you fix that.
Why is it important to be cautious when resuming lifting?
Now that we’ve covered everything there is to know about a deload week, it’s time to cover why it’s important to be cautious when resuming exercise.
When we take a deload week, our bodies get a little bit out of our usual rhythm. That’s because the more consistently we exercise, the more used to it our bodies become. This is because our bodies are able to adapt to exercise.
Think about it, the more often you work out, you might start to notice yourself becoming less and less sore. Or maybe you don’t get sore at all sometimes.
This doesn’t mean your workouts are no longer effective, it just means that your body has adapted to the exercise and is ready to perform, and quickly repair itself. Your body knows it need to recover quickly because another workout is coming soon.
Well the opposite of this is also true. Once you take more extended time off from the gym, your body adapts just slightly to not having to workout for that time. This doesn’t mean you’ve lost all your muscle and all your progress, it just means your body is not expecting to exercise right now.
Now, you can quickly get this back. It’s usually just initially that your body needs some extra time to readapt to working out.
As a result, the biggest reason you need to take caution is to prevent injuries from working out.
If you try and jump back into things too quickly, you’re at a greater risk of catching your body off guard. When you do that, you’re more likely to get injured.
How to resume exercise after a deload week
In order to help protect your body from injuries, here are some tips to help you resume lifting after taking a deload week.
Test your strength before resuming at 100%
If you truly enjoy lifting, then coming off of a deload week can have you eager to get back into the gym and give 100%.
However, if you’re regularly lifting heavy, then you don’t want to jump back in to your regular working sets right away.
This could put you at a huge risk of injury. And how tragic would it be if you’re so eager that as soon as you get back you injury yourself. Then you’d have to take even more time off.
Because we don’t want to injure ourselves, it’s best to take it slow when you’re resuming. At least for your first few sets.
Coming off of a deload week, you have to expect and be okay with the fact that you might not be able to jump back in right where you left off.
his doesn’t mean you’ve lost significant strength, it just means you’re body needs a little time to adjust to the weight again.
I even find that I’m usually able to get back to the same weight in my first workout back. However, as soon as I get back, I make sure that my first set of any exercises isn’t as heavy as it previously was before I took off.
Then, once I’m able to test how my warm-up set feels and how my lighter working sets feel, I can decide if my body is ready to resume at my usual weight.
You don’t even have to keep the weight lower for your entire first workout back. It’s just important that you test your strength before resuming at your normal weight.
This is the best way to avoid injuring yourself.
Ease back into your workouts
Going along with my previous point, it’s important to ease back into your program altogether.
When you resume working out, less is sometimes more. You want to avoid over doing it when you just get back. Since your body will be slightly out of rhythm.
For your first workout back, you might want to consider training slightly less intense or with slightly less volume than before.
Trying things like doing a couple less reps or doing one less set than usual can help your body readapt into your routine.
Avoid working out if you’re still sore
Like I said before, when you first get back, your body isn’t as used to working out like it usually is. The more time you take off, the less your body is ready to adapt and recover quickly.
As a result, when you resume exercise, your body will most likely get much more sore than it usually does.
Not only that, but it will also take longer to heal after a workout, leaving you sore fore longer.
Since you took time off, your body didn’t need to recover itself while you were resting. Now, when you resume working out, your body temporarily still doesn’t think it needs to recover quickly. That’s why you should expect a slow recovery and initial soreness.
Because of this, one thing you need to make sure you don’t do is work out your muscles while they’re sore.
Doing this not only won’t allow your muscles to grow, but it’ll also put you at extreme risk of injury.
As a result, even though you might be eager to get back into your routine, you might need to take more rest days than before. But only in your first week back.
Don’t worry though, your body will quickly adapt back to it’s usual efficient, healing state, it just needs a little extra time for now to get you back into things.
I recommend that during your first week back, evaluate your soreness levels throughout the week. Then, consider things like taking an extra rest day or training each muscle group only once that week.
Takeaways
Taking a deload week can be extremely beneficial for anyone who lifts weights. However, after taking some time off, it’s easy to become too eager to get back into your regular schedule.
But, for your own benefit and safety, it’s best not to rush back into things.
It’s important to ease your way into your routine and test your strength before resuming at your normal weight.
Doing these things will help prevent injuries and get you back into the gym in no time!
More posts on women’s weightlifting:
Lifting with long legs: How to grow your quads
Overcoming challenges women face in the weight room
How to increase your squat range of motion
Hi! My name is Izabela and I’m an active college student who has a passion for health and wellness. Growing up, I played soccer and began learning how to lift weights as part of my conditioning. This fueled my passion for physical activity and has turned me into a passionate weight lifter. I’ve been lifting weights for a little over two years now and have done extensive research on many weightlifting topics. My goal is to live a happy, healthy life while taking care of myself along the way. I hope to inspire and encourage other young women my age to do the same by sharing my experiences and educating you on everything I learn.