Quote Originally Posted by eatrainrest View Post
"If have not plateaued in strength by the 4th week of reloading you will still need to deload for a week to prevent over-training and allow for catch up growth that was stimulated during the reload"

i know this is a preventative statement, but if your seeing great gains by the 4th week, shouldnt you extend it until it plateus, wouldnt this be more ideal before jumping into the deload phase when you are still seeing results? because in the event of overtraining, your strength gains will diminsih, and you will not get stronger so isnt progress a better method than a week number to jump into the deloading phase?
You bring up a very good point!

Throughout the years, myself and other bodybuilders/power-lifters have experimented with reloading for longer than 4 week intervals. On paper the idea sounds promising but in reality it causes progressive gains to stop sooner that what can be accomplished with proper periodization.

Slingshot Training is not just another training routine. I have been fortunate enough with my profession to be able to perform many trial runs with people coming from various genetic backgrounds and who where at diffferent training levels (beginners, intermediate advanced and very advanced)!

Weightlifting is about creating continual adaptation. Gains in muscle mass are not made in a linear fashion. My studies have found that after reloading for 4 weeks max, the body's ACTION/REACTION FACTORS catch on to the same training stimulus even if some gains are still being made. What occurs next is that all gains will come to a sceeching halt much sooner! Why? Beause a deload provides the body with a different training stimulus while allowing Central Nervous System recovery-hence muscle gains are also made during a deload. It's not just during a reload that muscle gains are made! Alternating back and forth between a reload and deload will certainly extend your growth period by keeping the body off balance. The old sayings that sometimes "less is more" or "a lot of things work but nothing works forever" is correct.


The culprit with deloading is when someone absuses it as an excuse to become lazy or look for an easy way out. Think about this-Mike Mentzer was always big due to his genetics. For years he had utilized a constant reload to obtain pro-level status. One day he decided to reduce his training volume by way of a deload. What happened next? Mike experienced a huge growth spurt that made him believe low volume training was the holy grail of bodybuilding. However, this was not the case at all. He simply provided his with body with a new training stimulus while simultaneously allowing the body full-recuperation. Mike should have returned to his old higher volume training method of reloading and then changed things up with proper deloads. Instead he went from one extreme to the others and this kind of thinking has brought forth much confusion in the bodybuilding community that should not be. Dorian Yates when through the same exact thing!

I believe in taking the path of least resistance in all that I do bodybuilding wise. Paralysis by Overanalysis is a common thing with today's bodybuilder's and Slingshot Training is helping people break away from the viscious cycle of obsessive compulsive high-volume training and obsessive compulise low-volume training!