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in defense of doing literally nothing for a week
— Daniel Reyes (strength + recovery coach, contributor)
I'm going to lose some of you on this one, that's fine.
Last Monday I told a client to take 7 days off. No lifting, no cardio, no "active recovery" yoga, no walking-on-an-incline-treadmill-while-watching-Netflix. Off. He'd been grinding 5 days a week for 11 months, sleep was garbage, his last 3 squat sessions had bar speed slower than his warmup sets.
He pushed back hard. "I'll lose everything." Etc. Every guy past 35 has had this conversation with himself.
He didn't lose anything. Came back yesterday, hit a top set of 315 for an easy 5 — same weight that'd been a grinder two weeks ago. More importantly he slept 8 hrs three nights in a row, which I'm pretty sure he hasn't done since his kid was born.
The problem with deload weeks as most coaches program them — including me until like a year ago — is they're not actually rest. "Lift 60% for the week" is still lifting. The CNS doesn't fully reset. The connective tissue doesn't fully reset. You feel mildly less tired and call that recovery.
A real off week is uncomfortable because you'll feel guilty for 4 days. The guilt is the data. If a week of not training feels like an identity crisis, the training has become something other than training and you should probably look at that with someone who isn't your gym friend.
Programmed it for myself last quarter. Took the first week of February off. Came back stronger than I'd been in 2 years. I'm not selling anything, just — try it once. The worst case is you lose a tiny bit of conditioning that comes back in 4 sessions.
Garrett, if you're reading this — you're up next. Don't argue with me.