Hitting Plateaus? Why Trainers Say You Might Need to 'Periodize Recovery' for Stressful Seasons and Heavy Training Blocks

Many weightlifters obsess over their workouts. They cycle through weeks and months of heavy lifting with deload weeks sprinkled in (“easy” weeks where you intentionally reduce the amount of weight lifted), tracking sets, reps, percentages, and personal records. Yet, they fall short when it comes to their recovery, and end up using the same recovery techniques year-round. 

But you wouldn’t treat your workouts the same 52 weeks a year, so why would you do the same with your recovery practices like sleep?