Deload now or in three weeks, and how much lighter? Answer five questions about your training and get the timing, a volume, intensity or mixed deload, and the numbers for your main lift in lb or kg.
Should you deload every 8 weeks, or is that too often?
Deload now or in three weeks, and how much lighter? Answer five questions about your training and get the timing, a volume, intensity or mixed deload, and the numbers for your main lift in lb or kg.
Is a deload every 8 weeks right for you? Lifters surveyed in strength and physique sports deloaded every 5.6 weeks on average, and this calculator plans 8, 6 or 5 weeks by experience. It is filled with an example: 8 weeks since the last deload, an intermediate lifter (1-3 years), lifts still rising and feeling good. Press Calculate for the verdict, then change the answers to match your own last two weeks, because falling lifts or aching joints move the deload earlier.
Deload Calculator
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Deload week timing and the lighter numbers for your main lift
In a survey of 246 strength and physique athletes, the average deload came every 5.6 weeks and lasted about 6.4 days. That is a group average, not a rule for you. This deload calculator weighs three things you can check yourself: weeks since the last lighter week, what your lifts did over the last two weeks and how you feel. It answers "now", "not now" or "in X weeks", picks a type of deload and, if you add your main lift, gives the sets, reps, weight and reps in reserve for the deload week, in lb or kg.
Five answers and four optional numbers
- Weeks since the last deload - normal training weeks since the last lighter one. Never had one? Count from the start of the current program. Decimals such as 4.5 are fine.
- Training experience - beginner (up to about a year), intermediate (1-3 years) or advanced. It sets the planned gap: 8, 6 or 5 weeks.
- Lifts over the last 2 weeks - rising, stalled or falling, compared with the same session one or two weeks earlier.
- How you feel - good, tired with less drive, or achy joints and poor sleep.
- Type of deload - volume, intensity or mixed. Left empty, it is mixed.
- Working sets per week, sets, reps, weight in lb or kg, RIR - optional. Sets per week give the weekly cut; the main lift's sets unlock the lift plan. Then read the verdict, the tiles and the two tables.
Eight training logs and what the calculator says
A beginner who just keeps adding weight
Situation: 8 weeks, beginner, lifts rising, feeling good, 3 x 5 at 185 lb, type left empty.Result: Now, because 8 weeks is the planned gap for a beginner. Mixed deload: 2 sets of 5 at 165 lb, tonnage 41% lower.
Stalled and tired four weeks in
Situation: 4 weeks, intermediate, stalled, tired, volume deload, 60 sets a week, 4 x 6 at 225 lb, RIR 2.Result: Now, a reactive deload two weeks before the plan. 30 sets in the week instead of 60, 2 x 6 at 225 lb, RIR 4.
An advanced lifter on a heavy triple
Situation: 5 weeks, advanced, rising, good, 80 sets a week, 5 x 3 at 405 lb, RIR 1.Result: Now (gap of 5 weeks). Mixed: 48 sets in the week, 3 x 3 at 360 lb, tonnage 47% lower.
Lifts going up, elbows complaining
Situation: 3 weeks, intermediate, rising, achy joints and poor sleep, intensity deload, 4 x 8 at 135 lb.Result: Now. Same 4 x 8 at 110 lb, tonnage 19% lower, plus a note that pain lasting past a lighter week is a job for a physical therapist.
Weaker one week after a deload
Situation: 1 week, intermediate, falling, tired, 4 x 5 at 275 lb.Result: Not now. A second lighter week this soon rarely helps, so the calculator points at sleep, food, stress or an infection and keeps the plan for later: 2 x 5 at 245 lb.
A plateau without fatigue
Situation: 3 weeks, intermediate, stalled, feeling good, nothing else filled in.Result: In 3 weeks. A stall alone is not a signal; the calculator asks you to watch whether tiredness joins it.
Six weeks, logged in kilograms
Situation: 6 weeks, intermediate, rising, good, 4 x 6 at 100 kg, RIR 2.Result: Now. Mixed: 2 x 6 at 90 kg. Sets are rounded to whole sets, so 4 x 0.6 = 2.4 becomes 2, and the tonnage falls 55% rather than 46%.
Light sets that were never close to failure
Situation: 6 weeks, beginner, falling, good, volume deload, 3 x 12 at 50 lb, RIR 5.Result: Now, 2 x 12 at 50 lb, RIR 7, with a note: sets already this far from failure gain little from fewer sets, so the mixed type fits better.
How the verdict is decided
The calculator first looks for a fatigue signal, then for the calendar. A signal means falling lifts, achy joints with poor sleep, or a stall together with tiredness.
| What you entered | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A signal, under 2 weeks since a deload | Not now | the cause is likely outside training |
| A signal, 2 weeks or more | Now | reactive deload |
| No signal, weeks at or past the gap (8 / 6 / 5) | Now | planned deload |
| No signal, weeks below the gap | In X weeks | X = gap minus weeks, rounded up |
The gaps of 8, 6 and 5 weeks sit inside the range seen in practice. In a practical guide that followed their Delphi consensus of coaches, Bell and colleagues describe planned deloads every 4-8 weeks, or reactive ones when performance stalls. The size of the cuts is the calculator's own rule: half the volume follows tapering research, where cutting volume by roughly 41-60% while keeping intensity tended to work best, and the 15% load cut and the mixed version are practical choices, labeled as such in the result.
Deload weights for common bar loads
What each type leaves on the bar. Weights are rounded down, to 5 lb (1 lb under 45 lb) or 2.5 kg (1 kg under 20 kg), so the cut is never smaller than the rule.
| Working weight | Volume | Intensity (-15%) | Mixed (-10%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 135 lb | 135 lb | 110 lb | 120 lb |
| 185 lb | 185 lb | 155 lb | 165 lb |
| 225 lb | 225 lb | 190 lb | 200 lb |
| 315 lb | 315 lb | 265 lb | 280 lb |
| 405 lb | 405 lb | 340 lb | 360 lb |
| 60 kg | 60 kg | 50 kg | 52.5 kg |
| 100 kg | 100 kg | 85 kg | 90 kg |
| 140 kg | 140 kg | 117.5 kg | 125 kg |
Deload questions lifters keep asking
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Calculator verified by the LiczGrupa.pl team
Content, formulas and results have been reviewed for accuracy and relevance by our team of specialists.
Reviewed by: Patryk Matyjasik