‘I Tried a Deload Week and It Was the Key to Lifting Heavier and Getting My Workout Motivation Back’

5 min readEveryone’s experienced it: You wake up for your daily 7 a.m. workout with achy muscles, lower back pain, and a grumpy attitude. You planned to squeeze in legs before a busy day of work meetings, but every sign in the universe is pointing to you taking a rest day. That’s how you know you need a deload week.In case you’re not familiar, deload weeks involve decreasing the load of your training every few weeks to help your body recover, prevent injuries, and decrease stress—helping your workout performance in the long run. They’re the perfect opportunity to choose your own workout adventure because there’s no one right way to do them. You can lower your reps, sets, or weight during a lift, lessen mileage if you run, lengthen rest periods between sets, do lower-impact activities, or even take the full week off, if you want.As an avid lifter and runner, I’ve made pretty good friends with burnout this year, especially during a busy summer of travel and social plans. So, when I woke up sore the week before Labor Day from lifting to failure the day prior—with a week of travel ahead—I knew it was time to deload. Here’s what happened.Designing My Deload WeekNormally, I work out five to six days per week with three days of strength training, two days of running or zone 2 cardio, and one day of Pilates. Each of my deload weeks—which I usually do every four to six weeks—looks different, depending on how my body feels, but I still try to move at least a little every day. Sometimes I’ll take a couple extra days off, but typically, I decrease my sets while lifting or mileage when I run.However, this week’s deload involved a bit more rest due to travel for Labor Day weekend. I didn't want to be completely sedentary, so I opted for one lifting day and two shorter runs. Here's how I broke it down:Tuesday: Back, Biceps, and CoreI start strength workouts with a bit of core work, both to build strength and because it lessens my lower back pain. I did about half of the exercises I typically do, including crunches, planks, leg lowers, reverse crunches, and bicycles before my core and back felt too tired to continue. Then, I jumped into my back and biceps exercises, including an isometric biceps hold, single-arm biceps curls, pull-ups, and underhand bent-over rows.Build muscle and lose fat with the WH+ body recomp planMy arms were still sore from lifting on Sunday, so I took it easy. I performed my usual number of reps (usually 6 to 12) with the same weights, but two sets of each exercise instead of three. The workout felt pretty hard and I think I would’ve really struggled on the third sets, especially because I became more fatigued as the workout progressed. (I can normally do 6 or 7 unassisted pull-ups and only did 5.)Still, it was less work than usual, with the entire workout lasting only 40 minutes as opposed to the usual hour. I left the gym feeling mentally recharged and happy to have extra time to get ready for work!Wednesday: RunMy usual midweek interval run became a slower, shorter effort. I normally run three to four miles with some sprinting intervals. But after a late night, I wasn’t feeling too motivated to run in the morning, so I decided to do a relaxed two-miler and ended up finishing my day’s workout in under 30 minutes.To my surprise, it felt pretty good, even though I was running on low sleep. My body had plenty of energy and my muscles felt good. I probably could’ve run for a bit longer, but I decided to stick with the deload and finish early. I was proud of myself for still getting it done, even if I was doing less than normal!Saturday: RunMy second run of the week would typically be longer, around five to six miles. But full transparency: I left for my best friend’s bachelorette trip on the Jersey shore on Thursday, so I knew the rest of my week’s workouts would be shot. (Part of the reason I decided to deload in the first place!) So, earlier in the week, I’d planned to do a simpler run for extra movement on the trip, but not go too wild.By the time Saturday rolled around, I was going a little stir crazy and was craving some form of movement. So, I went on a short run, which felt great and wasn’t too hard on my body. Whenever I’m in a new place, my favorite way to explore is via running, and I loved looking at all of the cute houses and breathing the fresh air. Again, my body probably could’ve run for longer, but mentally, I wasn’t really feeling it. So, I finished two miles and instantly, my mood was boosted and I felt accomplished afterwards.The biggest takeaway from my deload week: The mental benefits were even better than the physical ones.I’m usually the type of person that doesn’t have an issue getting to the gym and I enjoy my workouts. But once in a while, exercise starts feeling more like a chore and makes my mental health worse. That’s a key sign that my body (and mind!) need a break.After this week, I realized that deloading makes me feel even better mentally than physically. Of course, the two are connected, but it takes a lot of mental effort to wake up each morning before work and make myself exercise. Every few weeks, it feels really good to let myself sleep in instead of hitting the gym, or not push myself to hit six miles in a run.Shop My Favorite Workout ClothesPlus, deloading gave me more freedom to enjoy life. I could stay out a bit later with friends one night knowing I didn’t have to work out the next day, or discover the joy in going for a walk rather than hitting a PR. And when they say distance makes the heart grow fonder, they’re absolutely right—once the weekend came, I was missing my workouts and couldn’t wait to get back to them.While, of course, I’m tired from the week of travel, I’m really excited (and motivated!) to get back to my normal workout routine next week. Plus, my body feels recovered and ready to take on heavier lifts.If you can’t lift as heavy as usual, you’re getting petty injuries, you’re sore, or just plain bored, it may be time for a deload week.I recommend listening to your body for what it’s craving, whether that’s decreasing reps, sets, weight, or mileage, making your rest periods in between sets longer, putting less effort in, doing lower-impact activities (cycling, walking or Pilates, for instance), trying different moves, or taking a full week off. As WH previously reported, try deloading every four to eight weeks (and if you have a week of travel coming up, that’s the perfect time, in my opinion).It can be really hard to make yourself rest, particularly if you love to stay moving, get your workouts in, and be productive in every second of your life. But you deserve to take a moment—or week—off. That’s the key to avoiding burnout, and continuing to live your longest, healthiest life. Addison Aloian is the associate health & fitness editor at Women’s Health, where she writes and edits across the health, weight loss, and fitness verticals. She’s also a certified personal trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM). In her free time, you can find her lifting weights at the gym, running on the West Side Highway in New York City—she recently completed her first marathon, the 2025 New York City Marathon—and watching (and critiquing!) the latest movies that have garnered Oscars buzz. In addition to Women's Health, she’s made an appearance on the Oprah Podcast and her work has also appeared in Allure, StyleCaster, L'Officiel USA, V Magazine, VMAN, and more.