Question for Jim or anyone else who have tried this on 2days a week
Due to recovery and family commitments I can only train twice a week but I wanted to run the 531 strength challenge detailed in the Beyond 531 book (pg88).
My question was if I run it alternating Squat and Bench one week and Deadlift and Press the other week, would you still recommend performing the deload week (week 4 and week 8) given the “5s” week is essentially a low stress/low volume which would run for two weeks straight on a 2 days a week template.
My initial thoughts are no given my the points above but if it takes away from the programme then I’m happy to perform.
I’m not authority in the subject, but here’s some of my thoughts:
Challenges are made to be followed directly as written. So you will probably be advised to do just some 2-day template.
I’m however in the same situation with you. I’m planning to do the challenge with 3d/week (5 week cycles).People usually try to add things to challenges and then exhaust themselves while doing the program. In our situation we’re going to make it little easier, and I personally don’t think that as a problem with progress. We’ll see if this does work or not.
I really can’t say anything significant about your main question. I think you’ll be okay when doing just one week (2 days) deload. The full-body deload would work here perfectly (3x5 each movement - really light).