Skip Hill brings up an interesting topic on @ThinkBigBodybuildingMedia. 🧐

[Doitagain]

If one actually benefits from taking a deload week on a regular basis, then his recovery (CNS, energy substrates etc.) is simply NOT commensurate to his training stimulus, and then volume, intensity, nutrition and rest need to be reassessed.

 

[headtrainer]

I feel like Paul says some pretty extreme things to be different anywhere from low reps to side delts and seems like he has been proposing very low volume as of late, and says that overhead extension don't target the long head where pretty much everyone else does.

But I do think if someone is training hard deload can only benefit and not hurt. I've found when I feel like I need them it's usually do to under recovering mentally and physically...lack of sleep, work stress. As hard as we try to recover sometimes things happen we can't. Life happens. I usually feel fuller actually on a deload and get my energy back.

Performing low reps while using lateral raises for side delts is just asking to tear the supraspinatus tendon. And over tricep extensions definitely place more emphasis on the lateral head of the triceps while stimulating the medial and lateral heads less. So, I disagree with Paul on those two points. But some of his ideas are sound.

 

[headtrainer]

In that scenario, why not adjust your training to something sustainable then though?

What you say seems like a better option in my opinion unless every time you train ( regardless of how many sets are performed) it irritates your joints/tendons.

 

[MR. BMJ]

Scott still lurks here on occasion, maybe he'll see this thread and chime in on Skip's behalf.

I knew Scott had been a member here, but i don't remember, or know, his handle name here, lol.

 

[KingOfSushi]

If one actually benefits from taking a deload week on a regular basis, then his recovery (CNS, energy substrates etc.) is simply NOT commensurate to his training stimulus, and then volume, intensity, nutrition and rest need to be reassessed.

Couldn’t agree more. I think people are way too married to the idea of their strength being better after a week off. Training for hypertrophy is very different than maximizing performance.

 

[TommyJ]

I agree. But backing off can be of great benefit if your body has a lot of wear and tear on it. I think it all depends on where you’re at in life.

Yea, this is an underrated comment. Skip has been training for 40 years. Majority of us, in my opinion, can not relate to that. He also trains very fucking hard.

 

[Spiro]

If i take complete week off i become detrained and lose strenght when come back to gym.

 

[TommyJ]

@TEAMSKIP •

I started to respond to some of the comments and then I decided I just don't want to. Most responses started with, "Why don't you just do..."


The answer is simple: Please try to understand that in almost 40 years of training, I have tried just about everything there is to try. There is almost no combination of muscle groups and no training schedule I have not used. However, training every other week hasn't been tried and I laid out the reasons why I am going to do it. I wasn't asking for advice or permission, to be quite fair and honest; I was giving my reasoning behind why I was going to experiment with it.


Now, if anyone here has experience with training in a fashion like this, I then would listen. Every person who has responded against the idea has nothing more than "I feel it won't work." It's the internet so as much as you can give your opinion, but in the end 1 really don't care what anything thinks. I'm just surprised that more people aren't intrigued but I won't respond as to why I think that because I don't want to sound disrespectful.

This is how people learn and to learn, sometimes you need to do what is not being done. I was very clear that this was my starting point. It could very well be that it will need to be modified to some degree. I don't take offense if you disagree with my position on doing this; what I take offense with is not seeing the logic behind it when not one person who has responded has anything to back up why it won't work other than they "feel" it won't work because it seems unorthodox. Hell, even if it flat out does NOT work, I will be able to find out why it doesn't work (instead of guessing) and adjust from there to find a better balance between training and recovery for me.


There once was a time when someone would say they were going to do something different and people were intrigued and thought, "Damn, this is kind of extreme but I'm curious how this is going to work" but instead we now live in a time where people think, "Well, I certainly wouldn't do it that way and you should do it this way because it will be better."

If you're interested in how it plays out, how I respond, and what tweaks and modifications I make to fine-tune it, stay tuned. If not, I'm good. I'm not demanding deference; I just want to continue to learn, and I assumed people listened to me because of my experience and sensical opinions on all things bodybuilding.

 

[Love_to_Bodybuild]

I used to take a deload or week off. After taking a week off ,I felt stressed, more aggressive, so I don't do that anymores. Resistance exercise is like a drug and I'm fine with being an addict to it. To me it's a good thing

I'll reduce volume at times and intensity but I'm still training intense enough to maintain muscle or at least try to say on trt.

 

[Ranchhand]

I knew Scott had been a member here, but i don't remember, or know, his handle name here, lol.

I don't know his handle name either, but on recent episodes of TBB Media he has plugged PM multiple times and mentioned he jumps on time to time to check out what's going on. I believe it was in the last couple of weeks on an episode with Skip and Andrew, boards came up and Scott focused on PM as the only one he cares to jump on from time to time. Skip and Andrew don't screw around with them, Andrew even mentioned he didn't even know boards still existed, lol.

 

[m87r]

Taking a deload week every 8-16 weeks or so is very diffrent than only training every other week.

 

[Massive G]

I knew Scott had been a member here, but i don't remember, or know, his handle

I just bumped his thread. Homonuculus

 

[Massive G]

Let's see where it goes. Skip is really good at being a diet and training rat so his summary will be interesting.

 

[CorgisOnTren]

I just bumped his thread. Homonuculus

I believe he means Scott McNally, not Stevenson.

 

[Ranchhand]

I believe he means Scott McNally, not Stevenson.

Yes, McNally

 

[qbkilla]

I just watched this video it reminded me of a guy at a dungeon type gym I trained at in college. I would go late at night id always run into this corrections officer. Lean good physique nothing special but his arms were jacked. He once told me his routine

Week 1 arms every day, rest everything else
Week 2, 2-3 full body workouts for the week no direct arm work

Repeat

He said he likes to experiment and this was how he got his arms. He said he started to get more extreme with it and tie in diet, orals, etc. Like high carbs low fat on arms week, then lower carbs higher fat on the off week. Orals on the arms week, then a week off on the 2x full body week

Interesting... worked for him.

 

[Hyper-T]

I have only found taking a full week off to be a negative. However I take an unloading week where I will only go to about 60% of the usual weight in each exercise once every six weeks or so. This allows for good continued progress and although it is frustrating to do an easy week, psychologically I'm chomping at the bit then to get back to it the next week. I think although aging makes gaining muscle harder you actually start to retain strength better with little training as you age. I found doing some of the more strenuous exercises only every other week I can certainly maintain strength. I think for many of us who have lifted for decades the chemical balance in our brain eg dopamine levels is badly thrown off if you do no lifting at all for a week and it can be very depressing.

 

[juggy38]

I knew Scott had been a member here, but i don't remember, or know, his handle name here, lol.

@homonunculus your being paged!!!

And when is the hip surgery?!? Do you need me
To send a protein bar basket?!

 

[MR. BMJ]

@homonunculus your being paged!!!

And when is the hip surgery?!? Do you need me
To send a protein bar basket?!

Wrong Scott silly. lol. I was referring to McNally as a member having been here but not knowing his handle name

I know who the great and mighty homonunculus is

 

[Pizza15]

Personally i need 1 week off every 6-8 weeks of progressive overload training, without that my lifts starts not improving anymore.

High volume or High intensity, doesn't matter, you need to deload, it's like doing one step back, do make 3 steps forward.