Deload and Reset — 2 Weeks
A two-week bridge between hard blocks: one week clearing fatigue, one week re-establishing the lifting pattern at reduced load.
- GOAL
- General Fitness
- LEVEL
- Intermediate
- LENGTH
- 2 weeks
- SESSIONS
- 4 per week
This is a bridge, not a training block. It follows a completed hard block — accumulation, intensification, or a race — and it exists so the next block starts from a clean base rather than on top of accumulated fatigue. Week 1 removes loaded training almost entirely and replaces it with mobility, soft tissue work and restorative sessions. Week 2 brings the barbell back at roughly 60 percent of the loads you were using, with low volume, purely to re-establish the movement pattern before the next block loads it properly. It sets up any block you want to run next. Use it when performance has plateaued or dropped for two weeks running, or on schedule after every third or fourth hard mesocycle.
- →Lifters finishing a hard block who are moving straight into another
- →Anyone whose numbers have gone backwards for two weeks in a row
- →Athletes coming out of a competition or a race
- →People who find full weeks off make it hard to restart
- →Coming out of at least four weeks of structured hard training — this block makes no sense on its own
- →Known working loads from the block you just finished, since week 2 is prescribed as a percentage of them
- →Willing to train well below capacity for a fortnight
Remove the training stress almost entirely and let accumulated fatigue clear. Sessions are short, unloaded and deliberately unchallenging.
- MondayDeload Week SessionLight and short. This sets the tone for the week.
- TuesdayEasy 30 min walk
- WednesdayFull Body MobilityUnloaded. Nothing that creates soreness.
- ThursdayRest
- FridaySoft Tissue and RollSlow. Two minutes per area.
- SaturdayRestorative ResetLongest session of the week and the easiest.
- SundayRest
PROGRESSIONThere is no progression this week and there is not meant to be. Nothing goes above RPE 5, no session runs past 40 minutes, and no session should produce soreness. If you finish a session tired, it was too much — cut the next one in half.
Bring the barbell back at reduced load to re-establish the pattern and prepare tissue for the next block, without generating any meaningful fatigue.
- MondayUpper Body A — Horizontal Press and Pull60 percent, two sets. Bar should move fast.
- TuesdayEasy 30 min walk or bike
- WednesdayLower Body A — Squat Focus60 percent. Full depth, no grinding.
- ThursdayRest
- FridayUpper Body B — Vertical Press and PullUp to 65 percent if Monday was easy.
- SaturdayFull Body MobilityKeeps the week 1 work in place.
- SundayRest
PROGRESSIONTwo sets per main lift at 60 percent of the loads from your last hard week, plus one set of each accessory. Add 5 percent to the load on the second session of the week if the first felt genuinely easy, and stop there — 70 percent is the ceiling for this week. Do not test anything; testing belongs to the first week of the next block.
- →Nothing in week 1 goes above RPE 5. If a session leaves you sore, halve the next one.
- →Week 2 sits at 60 to 70 percent of the loads from your last hard training week. 70 percent is a hard ceiling.
- →Two sets per main lift in week 2. Do not add sets because it feels easy — feeling easy is the target.
- →No testing in either week. Retest in the first week of the next block, not here.
- →If you still feel flat at the end of week 2, run week 2 again rather than starting the next block.
- →Keep sleep and food at the level of the hard block you just finished. Reducing both alongside training defeats the point.
- →Morning resting heart rate, taken daily and compared against your baseline from the previous block
- →Grip strength on a dynamometer, or a timed dead hang, at the start and end of the two weeks
- →Subjective sleep quality and soreness, rated out of 10 each morning
- →Bar speed on a fixed submaximal load, filmed at the end of week 2 and compared to the last hard week