Deload Week Calculator

About this calculator

A deload week deliberately reduces training load — usually by cutting weight, volume (sets × reps), or both to roughly 40-60% of normal — for a short period so the body can recover from accumulated fatigue before it turns into overtraining or injury, without losing the fitness adaptations built up over previous weeks. The reduction is calculated as a percentage off your normal working weights and volume rather than an arbitrary number, so the deload stays proportional to how hard you've actually been training.

Strength athletes and bodybuilders build deload weeks into a periodized program every 4-8 weeks, especially after a hard training block or before a competition peak, because chronic fatigue masks strength gains and can eventually stall progress even when the training itself is sound — a planned deload is a recovery tool, distinct from an unplanned one forced by injury or burnout.

This calculator takes your normal training weights and volume and the deload percentage you want to apply, and returns the reduced load and volume targets for your recovery week.