So this past week wasn’t just a deload week, it was a “do nothing” week.

If I did anything, it was keeping mind of my posture, and stretching, especially in the  neck/shoulder region.

I don’t feel great about taking a whole week away, but my body is physically happier.

I did step back and looked at some things.

Going 4x week I think is really good — if you can handle it. I think my body could take 4x week and make really good gains. I think the timing of when you lift against the recovery and “super-compensation” cycle is perfect here. However, if you are going to do this, you need to be fully dedicated to the process. This means eating a lot, and sleeping a lot. Recovery and all the other support structures really need to be in place. Given my schedule and life, I can’t always get the rest needed. No, not good and speaks to greater life issues to remedy. But for now it is how it is. So, I think I’ll be falling back to 3x and seeing how things go. And really, I think I’m more curious if 4x vs 3x, if it was putting a larger physical strain and demand upon my body and thus contributing to some stress and pressure in life. In part, just the schedule impacts, but more so the energy and recovery demands — if lifting drains me then leaves me with less to deal with the rest of my day, that’s no good. If 3x allows me greater balance in life, great.

Now, when I went to 4x I also simplified back to a true BBB template. I think that made sense given the frequency. But now if I’m going 3x… do I ramp it back up? Or do I keep it the same? I don’t know. I’m a little torn because I also want the assistance parts of my gym sessions to burn some energy. I’m decently in the Carb Back-Loading groove, tho I think that probably needs a re-read of the book and reexamination of my routine. But I’d like more effort towards burning things off.

What I keep gravitating back to is “5/3/1 bodybuilding“. Even Jim admits that deep down inside that’s what we all are — bodybuilders. I don’t want to abandon strength building (that’s still primary goal), but I think some more dedicated mass building is in order. I read about the Cube Method, and that has some dedication to mass building. I have been watching too many CT Fletcher videos. And I can’t help but expect that the increased workload would lend better to CBL. But then, it’s a LOT more work, and will it be too much to recover from, given what I wrote above?

I don’t know.

So I’m presently sitting between 3x BBB template, or 3x bodybuilding template.

Still thinking it through.