What IS A DELOAD WEEK?
Every time you train, you get weaker.
“What? But I train to get stronger!” you say.
Yes, that’s true. But in the short term? You’re more tired right after training, and even the day after. It takes time to recover from the stimulus, and THEN, it’s the recovery that makes you stronger in the end.
If you don’t take time to recover, you won’t just not get stronger— you’ll get weaker, or injured! Fingers especially take a while to adapt, so taking a week off from hangboarding every few weeks ensures that you’re not accumulating too much fatigue. We call this a DELOAD WEEK.
FAQs
Should I cut back on my climbing? My other training?
My usual approach to deload weeks is:
endurance sessions? Cut volume in half
limit bouldering/projects? Keep as usual. Mind you, that doesn’t mean do more!
lifting? Cut working sets in half
Can I Still hangboard in my warm-up?
Anything that’s not a “working set” is fine to do, including hangboarding as a warm-up.
Your hang constitutes a “working set” if you’re going at all close to failure— a margin of 5 seconds or less.
How often should I deload?
For most people, I recommend deloading every 5th week.
If you have a history of chronic overuse injuries, deload every 4th week (and make sure you’re tracking your training and climbing volume)
If you know you’ll have weeks where you can’t climb/train as much, you can shift your deload forward or backward to line up with that. Examples: work conference, planned vacation, PMS symptoms that make it hard to train, etc.