Rest Weeks Between TSFOSB Cylces

[Bradley Gish]

I’m going to try and refrain from getting into too much detail here, because I don’t want to venture into the private consultation of things( considering advanced training becomes highly individual), but would it be wise to take a low stress week before launching another cycle? I know that PPST3 mentions it for the Pyramid Model, but I was wondering if the same holds for TSFOSB. I’m currently running my 3rd consecutive TSFOSB ( 3 steps), and although I had success with the first two runs, my Squat is beat to hell at the moment. Each time I reset back to Base, which would be approximately 70% of my 1RM( or updated % considering the load increased each cycle). Thinking it may be a better idea to take a low stress week before relaunching, to let some fatigue dissipate. Anyone have any experience with this program?

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

Yes, but as you said programs like this take some tweaking at an individual level to get volume and intensities correct. The reason I prefer the 3-steps vs 2-step in many instances is because I like to take a longer build up before we hit max volumes and intensities in that 3rd loading week. You could be detraining a bit during the end of the cycle which makes jumping back into volume harder. Should probably look something like this:

Week 1: moderate volume, avg int ~75%
Week 2: high volume, avg int ~80%
Week 3: high volume, avg int ~85%
Week 4: low volume, avg int ~80%
Week 5: moderate volume, intensities range from a few sets @ 90-100+% + moderate volumes around 70%.

Perhaps if you add that back off work in week 5 you'll roll into next cycle a little easier.

[Bradley Gish]

You know, come to think of it, I had squatted 70%x5x3 on the second workout of week 5 previously, but during this last cycle, something came up, and I couldn’t make it to the gym to get the backoff sets in. Ha, I overlooked a detail that I thought was relatively small, but obviously very important. Thanks for the response Andy.