What is deloading in fitness?

Deloading in fitness refers to a planned reduction in exercise volume or intensity. It's a strategy used to allow the body to recover and prevent overtraining, helping to ensure continuous progress over the long term without overstressing the body or causing injury. Typically, a deloading period involves decreasing the volume and/or intensity of workouts for a certain time, such as a week, especially after sustained periods of high-intensity training.

Andrew Huberman and guest Andy Galpin discuss deloading by mentioning that it can be incorporated periodically according to a structured program. For instance, after six weeks of increasing intensity or load in training, a deload week could follow where the exercise volume and intensity are reduced. This decrease could be around 70% of the optimum, to help the body recover and prepare for future training stress 1 2.