Compound Lifts Twice a Week

I’ve been following the third template in beyond 5/3/1 for 8 weeks now. At first, I had the most progress over a short period of time in my entire life. In the first 4 or 5 weeks, I added 20 pounds to my bench, 35 to my squat, and 40 to my deadlift. I started to stall around week 6 and 7 and in the past couple of weeks I’ve even regressed a small amount.

I’ve struggled to hit high rep sets and lifts have felt slow and awkward in general. I don’t know whether this is due to simply needing a deload, not being able to handle hitting each compound twice a week, me not getting nearly enough sleep throughout the past couple of months, or a combination of these factors. I’ve already decided on a deload at the midpoint of my current cycle (a week and a half from now) but I don’t know if I should try to continue the template that I’ve been using or drop down to hitting each compound once a week. Any feedback is appreciated.

For reference, the template is as follows…
Monday - Deadlift, OHP
Tuesday - Squat, Bench
Thursday - Deadlift, OHP
Friday - Squat, Bench

is recovery on point? food sleeping mobility etc.
have you deloaded at all since starting this new routine? if not i suggest you do it, and come back fresher and stronger.

in the time i ran 5/3/1 4 days a week i hit all the compounds twice and got through 6 cycles constantly getting stronger.
using 5/3/1 full body now 3x per week and i have to admit the added recovery helps maybe thats something else you could try if you still struggle?

There are many 531 programs that have that specific template. I would follow those.

[quote]Beatso wrote:
is recovery on point? food sleeping mobility etc.
have you deloaded at all since starting this new routine? if not i suggest you do it, and come back fresher and stronger.

in the time i ran 5/3/1 4 days a week i hit all the compounds twice and got through 6 cycles constantly getting stronger.
using 5/3/1 full body now 3x per week and i have to admit the added recovery helps maybe thats something else you could try if you still struggle?[/quote]

Those were my issues. I hadn’t been sleeping (school + work) or even eating enough on some days where I was working ~12 hours. My lifts Thursday and Friday were much better after I made sure to get 8-10 hours of sleep and properly fueled myself. I haven’t deloaded since I started. However, all I’ve done so far is one full cycle (6 weeks) of regular 5/3/1 + joker sets + FSL/AMRAP on my 4 days-per-week schedule and 2 weeks of the same thing but with powerlifting 5/3/1 + pyramid sets when I can’t hit a joker set or powerlifting 5/3/1 + joker sets + FSL when I can. Next week is my 5/3/1 week, then I’m planning on taking a deload at the midpoint of this cycle. Hopefully I can start progressing again at the same speed as when I started with an emphasis on recovery. I’m 17 years old and on top of that am just a naturally quick healer/recoverer, so I’m sure I can keep doing all compounds twice per week.

[quote]Jim Wendler wrote:
There are many 531 programs that have that specific template. I would follow those. [/quote]

The only 5/3/1 book I own is Beyond 5/3/1, and in it I’m following “Template 3,” which has me doing the compounds twice a week. Thanks for the reply.