Actually, a mesocycle is a mini training cycle. Like Ross said, it can be used for just about anything.
Let's say you have a template, ok?
Monday - Deadlift variant, some unilateral leg variant and abs.
Wednesday - Bench variant, shoulders, back and abs.
Friday - Squat variant, some pc exercise and back and abs again.
Ok so this is your template. Now, you have all these variants thrown in there, right? So what's a deadlift variant? It's a variation of the deadlift. The exercises that cover this are: the deadlift itself, banded deadlifts, deficit deadlifts and rack deadlifts. So, your job is to rotate these lifts every 4 to 6 weeks and get stronger on them so that by getting stronger on these variations you get stronger on the main lift: the deadlift.
These 4 to 6 week blocks are called Mesocycles.
You can have strength, conditioning, bodybuilding - whatever type of mesocycles. It all depends upon your training and what type of template you're using.
Hope that helped.
ps: It has nothing to do with being a deload in and of itself. You don't take a 4 week deload. What you do is usually something like this in terms of training volume and intensity (intensity = % of 1RM):
Week 1 = Heavy
Week 2 = Medium
Week 3 = Very Heavy
Week 4 = Light aka a a type of "deload"
What I prefer to do when waving my volume on this is:
Week 1 = Medium
Week 2 = Heavy
Week 3 = Light or Very Heavy
Week 4 = Very Heavy
It just depends on the exercise and how your body is.
So for example, lets say that this month I have to do Singles for Squats. That means I have to use a minimum of 90% of my 1RM for a fixed number of sets. This is how i would wave the volume over the course of the month:
Week 1: (Heavy) 7x1
Week 2: (Medium) 5x1
Week 3: (Very Heavy) 9x1 or 10x1 if I can do it
Week 4: (Light) 3x1
See what I mean, now?
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