Break from Lifting, Stretching & Flexibility

As title says..

With a lighter (but still intense) load this week on # of workouts, I still feel pretty wore down. Starting to feel like shin splits from just moving around, kinda a tight and painful feel to my legs. I will not be cutting out cardio or any other of my workouts, but will not be doing my heavy push/pull days this week. Most would recommend a week break from heavy loads after 8-12 weeks so its time. IDK when the last time I took a week off but I'm sure its been about double that time. I usually take a week off every 4 months or so. It just helps recover and relax the muscles a bit. To begin with, this week I was planning on cutting out 200 more cals from my daily intake but I will keep them where they are until next week when I start lifting heavy weights again.

As much as I'd like to a week off from everything, this will have to do for now.

Recently I've begun dedicating more time to static stretching to improve flexibility. As Ive said before, I'm very flexible to begin with but I have room to improve. I'm already able to use my legs in many ways most others cannot in grappling, so not only am I interested in keeping that ability but also building upon it. Think BJ Penn and Eddie Bravo type of flexibility.

I've been working on stretching more the past month but the past couple of weeks I've been doing a great job of it. I usually only stretching once a day, but have starting going to 2x a day sometimes. I aim to stretch after cardio (hot stretching when muscles are really warmed up and blood moving) and/or before bed. When I stretch before bed I often do some dynamic work as a prequel. I run through a routine I've put together of my favorite stretching (And some I hate haha) that hits the hamstrings hard amound other muscles/tendons. At the night time stretching, I will put on some good meditation music with the lights low and stretch for 15-20 mins on average. Very peaceful, very relaxing - just breathing and slowly stretching. Its possible in the future I'll record a video of my stretching routine because others might find it helpful. I've always had a couple of yoga poses/stretches in it as well but recently have been looking and researching more into yoga and been adding more into my routine. I find this very helpful for relaxation and improving balance/flexibility. I've always been really big into learning as many things as possible, then taking what works for you and your own goals and putting it all together.

Anyway, anything I can do to make me a better person and a better fighter - I'm all for.

Plans for the next 3 days..

Tues - Cardio, neck/core
Weds - Cardio, BJJ/MMA
Thurs - Cardio