How to Properly Taper & Peak for Performance

Tapering is a powerful strategy for improving performance, and in this newsletter, I'll explain how to taper and peak for optimal performance. If you want to learn more, listen to the full Plateaus, Overtraining & How to Peak episode.

In the episode, I discussed plateaus and overtraining and explained how physical stress leads to adaptation. There are 3 key scenarios that relate training stress to rest and recovery:

1. Insufficient Stress: When training stress load is too low relative to your physiological resilience, it leads to plateaus or no adaptation.
2. Sufficient Stress: When the training load is challenging and exceeds your physiological resilience but is followed by adequate recovery, it leads to beneficial adaptations.
3. This is the goal state for peaking — training at the right intensity and balancing it with recovery to optimize performance before competition.

Excessive Stress: When training stress exceeds your recovery capacity, it leads to negative outcomes and, potentially, overtraining.

True overtraining is rare and causes serious negative effects. More commonly, athletes experience non-functional overreaching, where performance is stalled or declined due to excessive training and/or insufficient recovery. True overtraining typically takes months to recover from, whereas recovery from non-functional overreaching takes days/weeks. The key is to balance intense training with adequate recovery, and this is where tapering becomes important to maximize the benefits of your training.

What is a Deload vs. a Taper?

• Tapering, deloading and periodization are distinct but related training strategies that can help improve athletic performance while simultaneously reducing injury risk:
  ​Periodization: a long-term training strategy (typically months to years) that cycles between different intensity phases, such as incorporating deload periods after blocks of intense training (e.g., 4-6 weeks of high intensity followed by 1-2 weeks of deload).
  • Extensive research supports the fact that periodized programs are nearly always more effective for building strength, speed, power and endurance than non-periodized programs
  • Numerous forms of periodization exist, with most research finding roughly equal benefits across the styles. Having a plan really helps.
• Deload: a planned reduction in training intensity or volume, generally lasting a few days to 1 to 2 weeks, to allow recovery after intense training.
  • This could also be an unplanned break, such as taking a few days off when feeling fatigued or sick.
  • Deloading is not necessarily a full training break (off day) but can be. Reducing training volume by 30-50% is an effective and popular deload strategy.
• Tapering: a specific, pre-competition phase where training volume is reduced to minimize fatigue and, thus, maximize performance.
  • It is a more focused, strategic approach than deloading and is designed for peaking before an event.

Tapering enhances performance by reducing fatigue while maintaining or enhancing physical fitness (known as the “fitness-fatigue” model). Your physical fitness is relatively stable, while fatigue is more transient. The result is physical strength and endurance (VO2 max, etc.) increase, despite less training.

​Research consistently supports the fact that tapering leads to performance gains across various sports — endurance, strength, power and team sports — by reducing fatigue and enhancing muscle function, particularly in fast-twitch muscle fibers. These gains can be as high as 3-6%, which may seem small, but these are critical in elite competitive settings.

Guidelines for an Effective Taper

The goal of tapering is to reduce fatigue and optimize performance without compromising fitness, ensuring athletes are competition ready. Mismanaging tapering can result in a "flat" performance or mis-timing a peak. Use these general guidelines to plan a taper before a competition:

• Duration: Tapering typically lasts 2 to 21 days, depending on the sport and training load. Shorter events (e.g., high jump) may need only a few days, while long-term training generally requires a longer taper. Athletes who have undergone significant overload (intense or long training periods) will benefit most from tapering.
• Intensity: Intensity is usually maintained or slightly increased — less than (<) 25% — during tapering, but should not be drastically changed. Athletes in endurance sports may continue higher-intensity work, while strength athletes might opt for a slight reduction in intensity — approximately (~)85-90% of their max.
• Volume: Regardless of the sport, it is essential to reduce training volume by 40-60%. Increasing volume during tapering will negatively impact performance.
  • Volume and intensity should be balanced, as increasing both can be counterproductive. If intensity is maintained, volume should be reduced by at least 25% to allow adequate physical recovery.
• Frequency: Training frequency is typically maintained or slightly reduced (typically by 1 day/week). A significant drop in frequency, such as reducing workouts from 5 to 2 days/week, could lead to sluggishness or skill loss.

Taper Styles

There are three main tapering styles, each with a different approach to reducing volume. These general styles should be further tailored to specific sports and individual needs:

1. Step Taper: Involves a sudden, significant reduction in training volume to a lower, consistent level for the duration of the taper — for example, dropping from 20 miles/day to 12 miles/day. This style is common in strength training and powerlifting.
2. Linear Taper: A gradual, consistent decrease in training volume over the taper period. Typically used in endurance sports, a linear taper decreases volume steadily (e.g., from 20 miles daily to 16 miles per day the following week, then to 13 miles per week the first week, etc.).
3. Exponential Taper: Combines an initial rapid volume drop followed by a more gradual reduction. This method offers a quicker decrease in volume and is sometimes used when a more substantial taper is needed before competition.

Important Considerations

The above tapering guidelines should be customized for your specific sport, ensuring careful attention to timing and volume reduction while still maintaining skill level. Below are additional factors to consider when planning your taper:

• Personalization is the key to an effective taper. Athletes should experiment during regional events or qualifiers to find the tapering strategy that works best for them.
• Documentation and good note taking during these preliminary events will help fine-tune your tapering strategy.
• Rest Days: The number of days taken completely off from training before competition varies by sport. Strength sports require anywhere from 1 to 5 rest days, depending on the specific event.
• Training Peak: For weightlifters, the highest training volume typically peaks 5 to 6 weeks before the competition, and intensity peaks 2 to 2.5 weeks before a competition.
• Sprinting: Research on sprint tapering is limited, but studies like this one can be followed for an effective 10-day taper to improve sprint performance.
• Team Sports: Tapering for team sports follows similar principles to that done for individual sports but will require additional planning. Year-round athletes should plan for 2-3 tapers per year, especially in long or overlapping seasons, to prevent burnout and ensure peak performance.
  • Skill maintenance is crucial during tapering while in team sports — athletes should reduce conditioning volume while maintaining skill work (e.g., shooting or passing) to avoid unnecessary fatigue and to keep skills sharp.

Physiology & Tapering

During a taper, athletes experience several physiological improvements, such as better muscle glycogen stores, hydration, sleep quality, reduced creatine kinase and lactate levels and enhanced fast-twitch muscle fiber function. A common misconception is that testosterone levels rise significantly during a taper. In reality, testosterone doesn't typically increase, but performance still improves, as testosterone is not the only factor affecting physical size or performance.

More reflective of recovery during tapering are biomarkers such as the glutamate-to-glutamine ratio, which is linked to overtraining and reverses during taper. Additionally, fast-twitch muscle fibers, which are 5 to 8 times more powerful than slow-twitch fibers, are particularly responsive to tapering, improving work capacity, peak power, sprint performance and other metrics — even after just one week or less of tapering.

I hope you find these guidelines for an effective taper helpful and will start incorporating taper periods into your training plan to boost performance.

Remember: in the words of Bill Bowerman, “If you have a body, you are an athlete.”

-Andy