grease the groove vs. main workouts

[Justin Andzel]

Does any one set up there workouts where they grease the groove with a few exercises most days of the week, and maybe have only 2 or 3 real "workouts" a week?

 

For example, I would continue to grease the groove on handstands and l-sits about 6 days a week, and have maybe 2-3 days where I work my front and back levers and blitz the core and legs. Could I make progress this way?

[Tristan Curtis]

I think it depends what your goals are:

• if you're looking to cement skills - for instance as a full-time performer, or prepping for a competition - daily repetition is good;
• if you're looking to get stronger, and grow, I don't think 24 hour recovery has any advantage over 48-72 hour recovery.

 

While you could make progress repeating an exercise daily (push-up programs demonstrate this), I think it's taking the difficult path. To gain strength, the exercises in GB.com programs are intense and potent. They really need at least 48 hours of recovery (many people need more time). Repeating a "workout" every day will not give your muscles enough time to regenerate, and the intensity/effectiveness of your training will suffer to compensate.

[Connor Davies]

The main problem most people have with greasing the groove is they work too hard.  GTG is great for building body awareness and neurological efficiency, but if you're causing breakdown of muscle tissue or tendons, you're probably not going to get a chance to recover before the next workout, and then get overuse injuries.

 

As far as handstands are concerned, they're more about balance than strength training, so would be perfectly fine to practice (nearly) everyday.

 

If you want to do more work on your static positions, why don't you just pair them with your foundation workouts?