A week of unloading is a planned period in your training to take an active rest and muscle recovery. Unloading correctly allows your whole body to recover muscles after exertion and prevent injuries to joints, ligaments, tendons, etc. In addition, it helps to return hormonal levels to their original state and relax the central nervous system.
Therefore, especially when it comes to training focused on strength and muscle hypertrophy, a week of unloading is essential. Otherwise, we will jeopardize our well-being as athletes, we will greatly increase the risk of being injured and we will move away from our goals.
This is how you should plan your download week
Do you want to know why it is important to rest after an intense workout? Next, we are going to give you five keys about the download week and why it is so important to do it:
- A week of unloading doesn’t have to be a week without physical activity. You do not have to cease all activity. You can reduce your weights, sets, and reps. this training mode is extremely effective. Don’t lie down on the couch, completely still. You can continue jogging, but at a slower pace, or substitute walking to work on joint mobility. It’s simply about not doing anything that you have to “recover from”.
- Or you’re going to lose your muscles and all your progress for a week of unloading. Research shows that it takes about three weeks of inactivity for the first signs of muscle atrophy to appear. Losses of strength can and do occur in less than three weeks, but this is almost totally neutral, and no fat-free mass loss is observed. As for the interruption of progress, it is usually not so by taking a few days off.
- Studies have been conducted and it has been proven that muscle progress is identically the same in subjects who spend a few weeks resting between workouts over a given period of time as those who did not. In fact, this may be a way to get into training more eagerly again. So rest can and is even beneficial.
- Make the break deliberate; time off due to injury or illness does not count. Instead, a vacation of course you can count as a shock because you will not be accumulating much additional physiological stress on the body. But if you’ve caught the flu or have a jerk that forces you to rest, that’s not really a shock. Because the body is recovering from the disease and trying to overcome the problems associated with it.
- Your joints will thank you. Remember that connective tissue takes longer to adapt and heal than muscle tissue. The muscles could recover perfectly if you give them one week of discharge every four, or three for example.
To conclude and better understand the importance of rest after exercising, you should know that the only measure you should take into account if you are going to take a week off is to reduce caloric intake in the diet. Since you are going to use less energy, you will have to be careful and adapt your diet. Therefore, try to eat lighter meals and regulate your diet as well as your training.
And how often should I do this famous download week? The body will tell you, so you have to be very attentive. You also have help like this guide in which we recommend that, depending on the type of training, you rest every four weeks, or if you do not train very severely, every eight or even nine. Of course, it is a matter that also depends on the subject who is undergoing the training.
