So I tried the neurotype 3 workout CT suggested and I felt terrible on it, lots of fog and being tired, I think it was just too much volume. For the past 3 months I’ve tried something different based on how I feel when I take time off and it’s been working really well. I’ve gained about 10 lbs of lean muscle, added a significant amount of weight to my lifts and also feel I am largely avoiding overtraining and brain fog. Even most of my injuries have improved and some resolved.
I lift hard one week, M/T/Th/F mostly compound movements something I struggle to get 8 reps with, once I can get 10-12 I raise the weight. Total volume around 10-12 exercises 3x for 8-10 reps for the week. I don’t do anything else that week except Jiu Jitsu 4-5x/week.
2nd week I only do explosive bodyweight calisthenics M/Th, since us neurotype 3’s like endurance I do usually something like 30 reps of jump squats, pushups, pullups, single leg deadlift, V-crunches. On T/F I only run, about 3-4 miles at a good pace. Nothing else except Jiu Jitsu also 4-5x/week.
After 4 weeks I start to feel the overtraining, brain fog and irritability creep up so I take one full week off with nothing except the Jiu Jitsu. After one week off I feel incredible and can usually increase my weights and/or reps.
I want to keep this short, but was just curious what CT and others thought and if there was anything I should change or add and if this even makes any sense? I haven’t had results like this since when I was in my 20s, and I’m 48 now.
It takes me 3 or 4 days, I think I’m still overtraining to a certain extent. But the overtraining is good to a certain extent as there is supercompensation, that’s why I feel so strong after I take that week off. I’m taking Glycine post workout and before bed, and take GABA on the weightlifting weeks. I can definitely feel my moods deteriorating that 4th week so I may have to adjust things a bit, not sure yet.
Well those 3 or 4 days are hard on myself and family. I’ve mellowed out a lot with age, but can still be a pita. I already feel like I’m massively undertraining so I’m going to stick it out. The reason I tried this in the first place is because in the past whenever I take a week off I always felt phenomenal. I have a feeling I’m dealing with 30 years of overtraining so undertraining will be good for a while. What is surprising me is just how much better the results are than when I was training 4 days per week but every week.
There is some interesting research out there on this type of workout. Much of it is based on not squatting or deadlifting more than 1x week, with some alternating weeks with each exercise. But there is some research on actually only lifting 1 week then taking 1 week off that has pretty good results. I really didn’t put it all together until coming across CT’s phenomenal neurotyping stuff, really that stuff should be in medical textbooks.
I wish I could remember where I read it I’m sure it was an article on here somewhere but it talked about weekly periodization where you alternate between intensity and volume but within the training week as opposed to alternating cycles. So one day with strength focused high intensity and then a lower intensity hypertrophy day, etc. I wonder if this would work for someone like you.
Or perhaps even something like the Texas method?
I’m in the exact same situation as you, same Neuro type, age and how training has been affected me, so I’ll follow the responses to your post closely.