In the dual-factor training theory, one deloads when they've pushed themselves just shy of overtraining, in order to create a rebound effect by the body, significantly increasing performance. This is achieved through overreaching. You load your body for a short period of time (3-6 weeks, usually) with a large degree of volume that you couldn't sustain for long. You basically run yourself into the ground on purpose. Like strategic deconditioning, it's strategic but it's called overreaching.
In any case, from there you would slash volume and/or frequency significantly. You can also toy with intensity. Really, just do anything that would drastically drop the weekly load your body has to deal with. An example would be coming off a M/W/F frequency, doing 5x5 for squats 3x a week, along with benching and rowing on Fridays, and deadlifting, military pressing, and chinups on Wednesday, all for 5x5 - then as you begin to feel overtraining creeping in, you slash the volume to 3x3, and possibly, depending on your body and level of experience, cut down to training Monday and Thursday.
This is just one example. The whole process can be tricky, because you need to learn how your body will react. It's a very individual thing. After deloading for a week or two, you could either start ramping up the weight significantly once again (you keep it the same with 3x3 as you used during 5x5 when you deload - no reason to try and make progress here) into an "intensity" phase, in order to push your strength limits that much higher.
That's my very basic understanding of it, though.
Aaron, I also wondered about jvroig's question - if you reach your genetic limit for size, even though you could probably progress for some time with strength, wouldn't you stall out? If your limit was 200 lbs. and you couldn't eek out anything more (naturally, of course), could your bench keep going up forever? I would think that eventually there would be nothing more you could do to increase your strength. Neural adapatations all made and muscles working at maximum capacity...what can you do if you can't get bigger without AAS?
In any case, from there you would slash volume and/or frequency significantly. You can also toy with intensity. Really, just do anything that would drastically drop the weekly load your body has to deal with. An example would be coming off a M/W/F frequency, doing 5x5 for squats 3x a week, along with benching and rowing on Fridays, and deadlifting, military pressing, and chinups on Wednesday, all for 5x5 - then as you begin to feel overtraining creeping in, you slash the volume to 3x3, and possibly, depending on your body and level of experience, cut down to training Monday and Thursday.
This is just one example. The whole process can be tricky, because you need to learn how your body will react. It's a very individual thing. After deloading for a week or two, you could either start ramping up the weight significantly once again (you keep it the same with 3x3 as you used during 5x5 when you deload - no reason to try and make progress here) into an "intensity" phase, in order to push your strength limits that much higher.
That's my very basic understanding of it, though.
Aaron, I also wondered about jvroig's question - if you reach your genetic limit for size, even though you could probably progress for some time with strength, wouldn't you stall out? If your limit was 200 lbs. and you couldn't eek out anything more (naturally, of course), could your bench keep going up forever? I would think that eventually there would be nothing more you could do to increase your strength. Neural adapatations all made and muscles working at maximum capacity...what can you do if you can't get bigger without AAS?
