Quick answer: Take a reset week every fourth week, whatever your level. Keep your usual training days, but drop all intensity: no sprints, no HIIT, and strength weights about 30 percent lighter than usual. Easy days stay easy, and sleep is the priority. Between resets, a few days of poor sleep, heavy soreness, or a symptom flare can justify an extra easy day, but the 4-week rhythm stays.
A deload (Phaes calls it a reset week) is a planned lighter week. You keep training, but without intensity, so the fatigue that builds over several hard weeks can clear and your body can absorb the work. For women over 40, deloads are not a sign of weakness. They are what keeps progressive training progressing, because recovery gets slower and less predictable through perimenopause.
What a deload actually is
A deload is a short, deliberate drop in training stress, usually a week, that lets accumulated fatigue clear without giving up fitness. You train on your normal days, with lighter weights and only easy effort. The goal is to come back fresher and ready to push, not to rest completely or start over.
A 2023 Delphi consensus of strength coaches, published in Sports Medicine Open, proposed this definition: “a period of reduced training stress designed to mitigate physiological and psychological fatigue, promote recovery, and enhance preparedness for subsequent training.” The research base on deloading itself is still thin, and the authors say so. Most of what we know comes from coaching practice and from the closely related research on tapering before competition.
A deload is different from a rest day. Your weekly rest day handles the fatigue of a single week (our guide to recovery between hard sessions covers spacing). A deload handles the fatigue that stacks up over a block of weeks.
How often to deload over 40: every fourth week
In perimenopause and menopause, Phaes builds in a reset week every fourth week for every level: three weeks of training, then one week to recover. A fixed rhythm works better than waiting until you feel run down, because by then fatigue has already cost you sessions. It also takes the guesswork out: you know the lighter week is coming.
Every 4 weeks sits at the frequent end of what athletes do. A 2024 survey of 246 competitive strength and physique athletes found they deloaded on average every 5.6 weeks, for about 6 days. Most planned their deloads in advance rather than waiting to feel tired. That sample was mostly younger men, so it is a rough guide for women in perimenopause.
The reason to deload more often over 40 is not that you cannot handle hard training. It is that sleep disruption, hot flashes, and fluctuating hormones add stress your training plan does not see, and that stress counts against your recovery too.
How to run a reset week
A Phaes reset week keeps your usual training days but removes all intensity. No sprint intervals, no HIIT, and strength weights about 30 percent lighter than your normal working weights. Easy days stay easy, the weekly rest day stays, and sleep becomes the priority. You should finish every session feeling better than when you started.
| Training element | Normal week | Reset week |
|---|---|---|
| Strength load | Your working weights, heavy for your level | About 30 percent lighter |
| Strength effort | Hard final sets | Every set feels comfortable |
| Sprint intervals | One session | None |
| HIIT | As planned | None |
| Easy days | Walk, very easy run, yoga | Same |
| Long run | Easy effort, may include sprints | Easy effort only, no sprints |
| Rest day | One a week | One a week, more if you want it |
| Sleep | Important | The priority |
This differs from a competition taper. Research on tapering, such as a meta-analysis of 27 studies in competitive athletes (Bosquet and colleagues, 2007), found that cutting volume while keeping intensity best sharpens performance for a race. A reset week has a different job: recovery, not peaking. Taking intensity out for one week in four gives your body a real break, and you return to heavy lifting and sprints the week after.
Keep the same exercises. A reset is not the week to try a new program, because new movements create their own soreness.
Signs you need extra recovery sooner
Between reset weeks, watch for warning signs that stack up over a few days: weights that should feel moderate feel heavy, easy runs feel hard, soreness lasts past 72 hours, sleep gets worse, joints ache, or you dread sessions you normally enjoy. One rough day is noise. A cluster is a signal to add an easy day.
Watch for these:
- Performance stalls. The same weight moves slower, or you miss reps you made last week.
- Easy feels hard. Easy runs feel like a moderate effort at your normal pace.
- Sleep changes. You fall asleep exhausted but wake at 3 a.m., or sleep longer and still feel unrefreshed.
- Aches that linger. Tendons or joints, not just muscles, are complaining.
- Mood. You feel flat, irritable, or unusually unmotivated.
In perimenopause, these overlap with symptoms that have nothing to do with training. That is not a reason to ignore them. Fatigue is fatigue, whatever the source. The fix is usually small: swap the next hard session for a walk or yoga, or take an extra rest day, then carry on. If you are tired all the time even after a reset week, get it checked: low iron, thyroid problems, and under-eating all look like overtraining.
What about your cycle and symptoms?
Phaes keeps the reset on a fixed 4-week rhythm rather than moving it around your menstrual cycle. In perimenopause, cycles are often too irregular to plan a week around, and the research shows only a small average effect of cycle phase on performance. A bad symptom day can still earn you an extra easy day.
A 2020 meta-analysis in Sports Medicine (McNulty and colleagues) found performance may be slightly lower in the early follicular phase (during your period) on average, but the effect was trivial and varied a lot between women. The authors recommended an individual approach rather than blanket rules.
So if the days before or during your period, or a run of hot flashes and broken sleep, leave you flat, listen to that. Make that day easy, or take it as your rest day. You do not need to rebuild the whole month around it. Our page on running recovery during menopause covers the other ways recovery changes in this decade.
What to do during the week
During a reset week, keep moving on your normal schedule, sleep as much as you can, and eat normally. Do not cut calories to “make up” for training less. Your body uses the lighter week to repair tissue and restore energy stores, and that work needs fuel, protein, and healthy fats.
A few practical rules:
- Protect sleep. Earlier nights, a cool bedroom, less screen time. This is the week to bank it.
- Do not fill the gap. The urge to add a spin class because you feel fresh is the urge the reset exists to resist.
- Keep protein steady. Repair does not stop because training eased off.
- Manage stress. A reset week is physical and mental rest. Use the spare energy for something restorative.
- Plan the next block. Come back to your normal working weights and your sprint session, not to a big jump.
If you are not sure how your weekly rest fits around training, the rest day calculator gives a starting point.
Where Phaes fits
For women in perimenopause and menopause, Phaes schedules a reset week every fourth week at every level (every eighth week if you are still cycling regularly): no sprints or HIIT, strength notes that say to use about 70 percent of your usual weights, and sleep at the top of the list. Between resets, it reads your daily check-ins, so a run of bad sleep or a symptom flare can turn a hard day into an easy one. We do not just track your fatigue. We read it and adjust the plan.
The bottom line
Take a reset week every fourth week. Keep your training days, drop all intensity, lift about 30 percent lighter, keep easy days easy, and make sleep the priority. Between resets, let warning signs or a rough symptom day earn an extra easy day. Come back fresher, not detrained, and keep building.
Frequently asked questions
How often should women over 40 take a deload week?
In perimenopause and menopause, Phaes uses a reset week every fourth week for all levels: three weeks of training, then one lighter week. That sits at the frequent end of common practice. A 2024 survey of competitive strength athletes found they deloaded about every five to six weeks. Over 40, recovery is often slower and less predictable, so a regular 4-week rhythm is a safer default.
How much lighter should weights be on a deload?
About 30 percent lighter. If you normally squat 50 kg for your working sets, use around 35 kg in the reset week. Keep your usual exercises and move well, but stop every set feeling like you could do many more. The point is to practice the pattern, not to challenge it.
Will I lose muscle or fitness during a deload week?
No. A single lighter week is far too short to lose meaningful strength, muscle, or aerobic fitness, especially if you keep training on your usual days at lower intensity. Most people come out of a reset week feeling stronger, because the fatigue that was masking their fitness has cleared.
What are the signs I need a rest?
Weights that normally feel moderate start to feel heavy, easy runs feel hard, sleep gets worse, soreness lingers past 72 hours, joints ache, or you dread sessions you normally enjoy. One bad day means little. Several together for a few days is a good reason to swap the next hard session for an easy day, even if your reset week is not due yet.
Should I time deloads to my menstrual cycle?
You do not need to. Research on cycle phase and performance shows only a small average effect that varies a lot between women, and in perimenopause cycles are often too irregular to plan around. Phaes keeps the reset on a fixed 4-week rhythm, and lets a rough symptom day earn an extra easy day instead.
Can I run during a deload week?
Yes. Keep running on your usual days, but at an easy effort only: a very easy run, a walk, or yoga. Skip the sprint session that week, and keep the long run relaxed. You come back to sprints the following week, fresher.