Will switching from 4-day to 3-day programmes substantively change outcomes?

Training Q&A [Moderated]
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I have been running 4-day templates for about 3 years now, but for approximately the past 8 months been finding the training frequency and volumes of the templates (Hypertrophy II, Powerbuilding II, and Alan Thrall’s 12-week programme), particularly towards the latter half of the programmes, at the very limits of my training capacities.

I feel I can generally recover enough for the next workout, but that that recovery margin diminishes significantly towards the end of the programme, by which point the last couple of weeks feel like RPE 10 efforts, and recently there have repeated minor flareups of knee tendinopathy. There’s also a more general sense of exhaustion that correlates to the training pattern (worsens over the course of the programme).

I’m somewhat frustrated by this development, since other lifestyle factors contributing to fatigue have remained fairly constant, I’ve made measurable size and strength gains training 4-day templates, and after three years I should be sufficiently adapted to the stress to handle it.

I was wondering whether shifting to the 3-day templates would be viable for continuing to drive adaptation while facilitating sufficient recovery, or are the 3-day templates engineered specifically for beginners with lower training capacities, and therefore dropping from 4 to 3 days would constitute a step backwards, or be limiting, since they aren’t as advanced?

Or perhaps would the 4-day Low Fatigue programme be a better option than 3-day templates?

Many thanks,
Matt

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I was wondering whether shifting to the 3-day templates would be viable for continuing to drive adaptation while facilitating sufficient recovery, or are the 3-day templates engineered specifically for beginners with lower training capacities, and therefore dropping from 4 to 3 days would constitute a step backwards, or be limiting, since they aren’t as advanced?

Or perhaps would the 4-day Low Fatigue programme be a better option than 3-day templates?

Matt,

The 3-day templates are lower volume (and thus training load) than the 4-day templates. If someone was making awesome progress on a 4-day template, it would be tough to recommend them changing their program to something with a lower training load. Conversely, if someone isn’t making good progress on a 4-day templates training load and has signs/symptoms of utilizing too high of a training load, then reducing the training load could be useful. This can be done via lowering volume, average intensity, RPE (e.g. decreasing proximity to failure), etc.

As far as what you should do now, I’d probably get the Low ISF template. It includes two 3-day and two 4-day templates along with a lengthy programming text to explain how-to tweak, manage, interpret your programming results. I think that would be great for you.

-Jordan

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