Question about ‘deloads’

[u_e_s_i]

Say if I train each body-part once every 4 days.
What would be the difference between having a week long deload once every other month and missing a session for each body-part once every other month (so during one week every other month you’d only train each body-part once as opposed to your usual 1.75 times, effectively halving your total volume for that week)?

I feel as if the two would have pretty much the same effect as when you miss those training sessions you’d be giving you body a rest, approximately halving your usual volume for a week and still train each body part that week which would be enough to at least maintain your gains. What do you guys think?

 

[Sean1332]

Unless you're a strength athlete looking to supercompensate after a deload, it likely won't matter TOO much but...for most of the time, deloading will be the better option for conservation of gains.

However, taking an entire week off even is needed sometimes and isn't going to kill our gains instantly.

It's all about doing what's optimal.

But, it's also important to do what you want: do you want to just skip a day? Or do you want to do what might be optimal? Either way, you won't be wrong.

Dr. Mike talks about this within the first 2 minutes of this video.

 

[elo76]

I don't think the purpose of the deload is really body part specific. It's more to give your CNS a break if you are training very intensely (sets to failure, rest pause "cluster", drop sets, super sets, etc).

I can tell when my body needs a deload and take a day or 2 off. I usually change my workout routine to back off on the high intensity techniques for a while. This is rare though...last time I actually needed a deload is when I was deep into DC training.