A recovery week workout is a deliberately lighter week: the builder takes 30 points off your intensity, drops one workout day (never below 2) and leaves out For Time and Tabata workouts, so your body can catch up.
Please check with your doctor before starting a new plan, especially after a long break, an injury or if you take medication.
What triggers a recovery week?
In the weekly check-in, any one of these starts a recovery week:
- You report pain or an injury.
- You rate your tiredness 9 or 10.
- You rate difficulty 9 or more together with tiredness 8 or more.
The builder doesn't wait for a second warning. Strong signals win over everything else, including a good strain average.
What changes in a recovery week?
Three things:
- Intensity drops 30%. That is 30 points off your starting percentage, and the result is kept between 50% and 120%.
- One fewer workout day. It never goes below 2.
- No For Time or Tabata workouts. These are the formats that push the pace, so they sit out.
Here is an example. An intermediate trainee on 3 workouts, medium sessions and a general fitness goal normally starts at 80%. After a recovery trigger that becomes 50%, with 2 workouts instead of 3. A beginner starting at 60% would land below the floor, so it is held at 50%.
The 10,000-step recommendation, adjustable per day, and the 10 minutes of stretching on rest days are still on the plan.
How should you spend the week?
- Do the lighter sessions, and keep them light. The point is to arrive at next week feeling better, not to prove a point at 50%.
- Walk only if it doesn't hurt. Steps are a recommendation, and you can lower any day's target, down to 0.
- Protect your sleep. It is the cheapest recovery tool you own. See why recovery takes longer after 30.
- Don't add workouts "to make up for it". You can add a workout to a rest day, but a recovery week is a bad week to do it.
- Keep the stretching. Ten minutes on rest days is easy and it keeps the habit alive.
What if the pain doesn't go away?
A recovery week is not a treatment. If you have pain, especially sharp pain, pain that lingers or pain that gets worse, talk to your doctor or a physiotherapist before training again. The builder can lighten the week, but it can't diagnose anything or tell you what's wrong.
If the soreness is just the normal aftermath of a hard week, sore for days after working out explains what's typical.
What happens after?
When you come back the following week, you answer the check-in again. If you feel better and finish the lighter week, the next plan responds to that. It is a pause, not a punishment, and you don't have to earn your way back from the beginning.
Weeks 4, 8 and 12 are lighter by design even when nothing is wrong. That is the deload week.
FAQs
Is a recovery week the same as a rest week?
No. You still train, just with fewer workouts and a lower percentage. If you need complete rest, you can also use "Make rest day" on any day.
Will I lose progress?
A week of lighter training is a small part of a longer plan. You haven't thrown away what you built, and the following week responds to how you feel.
Can I skip the recovery week?
You can, because you can always change the "All reps" percentage on a workout. But if the check-in said you needed it, ask yourself why you'd rather ignore it.
The bottom line
A recovery week is the builder noticing what you told it and responding sensibly. Take it, keep it light and come back with a fresh check-in. Build your weekly plan.
Go train, FATBOY.
This article is general information, not medical advice. Train at your own risk. If you have a health condition, take medication or are unsure whether exercise or a diet change is right for you, talk to your doctor first.
- weekly plan
- recovery
- deload