Take a deload or rest week

A deload is a planned week of lighter work. Same lifts, same structure, less load and less volume. The point is to let fatigue drop so the next hard cycle starts from a fresh baseline. It is not a rest week, and it is not skipping. It is part of the program.

Rackd handles two flavours: programmed deloads that the program triggers on its own, and manual deloads you call when your body says so.

Programmed deloads

If you run a wave-loading program like 6-Week Strength Peak or Strength + Hypertrophy 21-Week, a deload week is baked into the schedule. Look at the week list in My Rack and you will see one labelled Build (Deload) or Peak (Deload). The app handles it for you. Your training max stays exactly where it was at the start of the cycle. Working sets drop. Volume is low, intent is technique, and the Coach Note keeps it plain: light weight, focus on form. The voice on a deload week is the same:

Deload week. Take it easy this round.

You still log the sets. You still hit Start. The math feeds you lighter numbers.

5x5 and the linear-progression programs do not have built-in deloads on a fixed schedule. They deload when you stall. Two failed sessions on the same lift and the program drops your training max ten percent and re-runs the ramp. Same idea, different trigger.

Self-initiated rest

Some weeks the program does not call a deload but your body did. Travel, illness, sleep gone for a stretch, life. Rackd watches days since your last workout. Once you cross 14 days off, a Welcome Back banner appears on the Home tab asking if you want to ease in. Tap Review, then Apply Deload. The next session drops working weights by 10 to 40 percent depending on how long you have been out: 10% at two weeks, 20% at a month, 30% at two months, 40% at three months or more. Skip This Time keeps full load if you would rather push.

Rule of thumb: if two heavy sessions in a row felt 2 RPE points above where they should, take a week off and let the banner do its job. One bad session is noise. Two is a pattern.

What the math does

Training max stays put. The number that drives your working sets does not move during a deload, programmed or manual. The deload is volume and intensity coming down for one week. The plan picks back up at full load the week after, from the same training max you ended on.

A full skipped week is different. If you miss seven days entirely, the program flags it and the Coach Note suggests starting the next cycle at the same training max instead of progressing. No PR was earned, no ground was lost, the cycle resumes.

Take the deload. Show up the week after.