hey there, "thinning out branches" that means literally taking a cola that's gonna be full of bud in a few weeks and throwing it in the trash. Obviously dont do that. Same with "thinning out" the bush by removing leaves. All that does is shock the plant and make it produce more leafs or leafy buds to compensate. The best you can do is remove the bottom most set of leafs , take a razorblade and remove the bottom most set of flower nodes. This will help the plant focus on the flower nodes a bit higher in the plant. Hope this helps ! 🚀