5 weeks with lots of free time to train

Starting this Sunday, I'll have 5 weeks off with loads of free time, just occasional work/commitments. Im planning on getting a substantial amount of training in, before going overseas/skiing for a week. I'm posting here to:

1. Get some suggestions from the community 

2. Act as a motivator now its written and posted

Week 1: last week of current cycle, + implement extra training

Week 2: probable deload

Week 3,4,5 - volume!

Week 6 - skiing  (will need some extra leg work to prep for this)

I'm thinking something like F7 5x a week, plus some supplemental foundation work from F2. Maybe squats/deadlifts, sprints, battling ropes (love these) 2x a week . I'm looking to train enough to overreach, followed by a deload for a supercompensation. Still got to write out a schedule, but I'm looking at 2-3 training sessions per day. Thoughts/ideas appreciated.

Additional spare time won't let you make a quantum leap in the training volume. If you jump up to F7 5x/week from foundation 5 days a week, it's liable to wreck you. What I would recommend is:

1. A moderate increase in training volume (e.g. one additional day of F1 per week)

2. Sleep 8.5 hours every night.

3. Stretch. A lot.

4. A significant increase in active recovery methods (foam-rolling, contrast showers, joint flossing, etc)

5. Figure out ways you can eat healthier when you don't have oodles of spare time. Develop some quick and easy meals that have lots of protein and vegetables and taste good.

6. Take any remaining time to make improvements to your workout setup. 

I'm already training F1 5x a week + a bit of extra stuff randomly throughout the day/week (usually try 2x rings for some prep/maintenance work) + some extra random stuff throughout the day + have been working full time on my feet all day. I have pretty good recovery and wouldn't mind potentially wrecking myself in the short term, not only for potential gains but as a test to see how I'd go.

I'm not looking for a quantam leap, but I think an extra few hours each week is sustainable. But yeah I think a lot of what I add will be stretching/mobility.

Re: 6 - Looking into building parallel bars right now Then my home set up will be "complete" for now, although I'll probably "need" something else next week.

Art Vandelay said:

I'm already training F1 5x a week + a bit of extra stuff randomly throughout the day/week (usually try 2x rings for some prep/maintenance work) + some extra random stuff throughout the day + have been working full time on my feet all day. I have pretty good recovery and wouldn't mind potentially wrecking myself in the short term, not only for potential gains but as a test to see how I'd go.

 

I'm not looking for a quantam leap, but I think an extra few hours each week is sustainable. But yeah I think a lot of what I add will be stretching/mobility.

 

Re: 6 - Looking into building parallel bars right now Then my home set up will be "complete" for now, although I'll probably "need" something else next week.

Going from F1 5x/week to F7 5x/week is pretty much doubling your strength-training workload. An increase of that magnitude is liable to get you injured, which would set you back more than any potential gain from the additional workload. Always be conservative when increasing your workload. 

Another thing you can generally do more frequently is mobility. So you could bump yourself up to F7 3x/week, and then make up a mobility circuit to work through on the off days. You could also throw in some cardio work if you feel the need for more volume. 

This can be done but remember to keep track if your tendons and joints. Especially with the low leverage movements. A common way of doing twice a day is the training in the morning as normal then the second training is lower intensity and possibly higher volume. But as was told to you, the risk of injury is there but be careful.

What I am hoping to do when I get that much free time, is to combine a lot of good stuff.

Here is my suggestion (and what makes me personally excited ):  

• Keep F1 5x/week, but for each day you could add in a second session of of what you worked that day (legs, pushing, pulling, SASS etc) but with different exercises. I would be inclined to do more intense elements with much greater rest than Foundation gives you. For instance, though I am currently on RC/PE2, but I can do about 50m of rope climbing without legs and without stopping. So in a later session, I might do 8m of climbing (which is up and down my rope twice), then rest 3-4 minutes, for 3-4 sets. Or I might do muscle ups, focusing of going up and down and slowly as possible. For FL I would do 4x8-12s straddle FLs with 2-3m of rest, even though I am on FL/PE2 as well. You can also manipulate these extra parts to get more volume. It's a very good idea to keep the days separated, instead of doing F7 5x/week, for your body to recover. But on those days, you can work on killing whichever body part is the poor bastard of the day.
• Choose some weighted leg stuff to do, but do it on your leg days. Doesn't much matter IMO: bulgarian squats, deadlifts, fornt or back squats, cleans, whatever you want. There are a million different templates, just pick one and stick with it. Start slow, but you can build up volume, or more days a week. Even do multiple exercises if you like, but do them on different days. 
• Do Ido Portal's floreio workouts he has on his old blog, maybe 3x/week. Super super good for active flexibility in tons of positions, you'll do some new stuff, get better control of your body on the ground, and have a good bit of fun. His instructions are extremely detailed and he has many workouts already set up. Cycle through them in the order he posted them.
• Do Kelly Starret's Mobility WODs, everyday if you can. You can go back to the beginning of the MWOD project and work your way forward, even doing a couple a day. But eventually, you should identify what your biggest issues are, and I assure you he will have MWODs to help those things, then start doing that them a couple times a week. He has some stuff that really really helps open up your shoulder for instance, that I really need to start doing more often.
• Get a static stretching routine going, or loaded passive stretching. The stuff by Ido Portal and Kelly Starret will address a whole lot, but for gymnastics, you want this. 
• Do H1?

This is just the stuff I would do, but I think it would be good for anyone. 

Good advice above, most importantly, don't hurt yourself.

Great post Chisei!

Thanks! I just wish it were me that had all that time right now... 

After thinking about it more, I think im going to focus more on mobility as you guys have suggested.  I'm not worried about an injury, as most of the foundation work at this stage is not too aggressive and I know not to push through pain.  But yeah mobility should be my main focus anyway.

And haha yes, I forgot to mention H1 training as I usually lump it into F1 "B" workouts. 

Art, you could also consider if there are other things around your training besides the training itself to improve. If needed, you could use the spare time to develop improved cooking and eating habits for instance. That's what I am planning to do on my vacation coming up.

Chisei said:

Do Kelly Starret's Mobility WODs, everyday if you can. You can go back to the beginning of the MWOD project and work your way forward, even doing a couple a day. But eventually, you should identify what your biggest issues are, and I assure you he will have MWODs to help those things, then start doing that them a couple times a week. He has some stuff that really really helps open up your shoulder for instance, that I really need to start doing more often.

I'm going through the Mobility WOD- really good stuff here. Do you just do one a day and revisit as needed, or do you try to build a stretching program around it?