A little over a week ago I put the bench shirt back on. While I was warming up raw I worked up to 500. The week before it felt like an empty bar. This time it almost felt like a little bit of a grind. That's how I knew. There were no other signs, I did not need any. It was time.
I don't like planning deloads while training conjugate. I find they can be a waste of time. I would hate to miss a potentially great training session just because it's week 4. Now, I just let my body tell me.
I also don't have preset plans for deloads anymore. Following the written paper can be a grind. I trust myself to know that I won't just take the week off. It's also nice to just change things up for a week.
So last week I just did light training and a lot of conditioning. A lot of warming up and cooling down. Just keeping the body moving around enough to not go stale and importantly, not gain any weight.
That's it, no magic formula, just a feeling and trusting my instincts.