Originally Posted by 0311

I do not care for substituting lots of volume in place of intensity for a deload. Not at all. I won't do speed work during a deload because it's hell on my joints as it is lol. I'd do some rep work instead, then maybe one or two accessory exercises before getting the hell out of there. Max effort could either stay the same or be slightly reduced depending on how you feel. But I wouldn't just ditch it altogether for a deload. Sometimes, if I was doing 1 RM's (3 x 1 w/ 2 sets > 90%), I'd revise that to a max set of 5 reps, or a 3 x 3 for something different.

Depending on how long you've been loading for, and how you feel, I've always done extremely well with two week deloads. The first week is serious deloading, the second is almost at "half pace" kinda like building my intensity/mindset back up so I can pick up where I left off. That's why I LOVE conjugate lifting because you can go for quite a long time without every beating yourself up so long as you don't bite more than you can chew.