Returning to Four Day Templates in Calorie Deficit

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hi,

I’ve been training consistently for three years. During the first year I lost quite a bit of weight (>30 kilos). For the first 16 months I ran three day templates, then I ran four day templates for around 14 months. For the past 6 months I have been back on three day templates and stopped doing GPP. Between all the ongoing covid chaos and starting my masters degree last year, I found myself really struggling with motivation. I put about 10-15kg of unwanted fat back on last year, and for most of the past couple of months I have just been running the pivot portion of time crunch 2.0. Over the Christmas/New year period I have been running week 1 of hypertrophy 1 on repeat. Between the weight gain and skipping GPP, I have noticed that my conditioning has really suffered.

I have the next 8 weeks off university and am determined to lose a good chunk of the weight I gained last year while I have a lot of time on my hands. Ideally, I would also like to return to a four day template - I know I will find it easier to manage lifting four days per week throughout the year if I am already in the habit when classes start again, and I make better progress on four day templates. In particular, I would like to run hypertrophy 2 because I’m feeling a bit over the competition lifts and like that it allows me to select exercises I haven’t done for a while. However, I am not sure if fatigue management is likely to be an issue if I increase volume and cut weight at the same time.

This week I have started counting calories again and have added a 60-90 minute walk to my daily routine. I plan to do 2-3 cardio sessions per week (basically the GPP cardio prescribed in a BBM template but perhaps with an additional session). My aim is to lose 0.75-1kg per week and maintain as much muscle mass as possible. In light of my background and situation, I have a few questions:

  1. Do you think it would be okay for me to run hypertrophy 2 in my situation? Or am I likely to run into issues with fatigue management? (In case it is relevant, I have ran hypertrophy 2 twice before and saw good results both times.)
  2. If you would advise against hypertrophy 2 at this time, is there any four day template you think I could run?
  3. Regardless of what template I run, would it be reasonable to cap my RPE around 7 in order to help with fatigue management? Or is it better to just do the programs as they are written? I
2

RL,

  1. I think it’s fine. BB II may be even better for you though given it’s further shift away from the comp lifts, added isolation work, conditioning focus, etc.
  2. No. I think that approach is probably best suitedfor high intensity strength training. I am really happy with the way the programs are written at present and would do them as written, if possible.

-Jordan