My First Steady State Routine

Apologize in advance for the extreme length of this post. But with all of the questions floating around regarding workout design I figured the more detail the better, both for my own clarification as I am writing this down but also for anybody else who happens along with some of the same questions.

With that in mind, I have designed my first steady state training cycle and was curious ... what is the best policy for number of sets when doing an Integrated Steady State cycle as regards the static positions?

Specifically, if half the static hold max is used (as directed in BTGB), is it better to do enough sets to hit 60 seconds total ... or is it preferable to limit the sets to 3-4? I designed my routine limited to 3 sets, but if I should be hitting a higher time under tension for the static holds I can double up the static hold sets as suggested in the WOD routines, or add more total giant sets of each pair if that is a better approach.

I tested myself this weekend on the following exercises and the times I got were as follows:

• 
  [*:2sns0cp2]Frog Stand: 30 Seconds
  [*:2sns0cp2]Tuck Back Lever: 18 Seconds
  [*:2sns0cp2]Tuck Front Lever: 12 Seconds
  [*:2sns0cp2]XR L-Sit: 12 Seconds

My thoughts on the tested holds are as follows.

My back lever is pretty much a flat tuck, but not because I am advanced at that movement ... it is simply that my back has pretty limited mobility, thus my tuck is nowhere near rounding my back (it basically just pulls up my knees).

The same back flexibility affecting my back lever affects the front lever as well. Thus, since I can't get into a tuck position very well (and am mostly flat), my hips are up quite a bit higher than my shoulders.

I don't think there is anything special I can do for those two things. So I plan to just do my sets aiming for a tuck and at some point it will hopefully get there.

The routine I have planned at this point is shown below. I may change it during this first week if I find any given day to have an exercise which is too easy, but I think I did a decent job choosing them for my skill level or at least ones that lend themselves to an appropriate variation (e.g. feet lower, feet higher, tuck, etc.).

Thanks for any feedback and hope it helps others too.

- Chris

=====================

Integrated Steady State Cycle

Morning GPP:

• 
  [*:2sns0cp2]3 x 10 KB Swings (2 Handed)
  [*:2sns0cp2]1 x 10 KB Swings (1 Handed)
  [*:2sns0cp2]5,4,3,2,1 KB Snatch Ladder (no rest)

Morning Prehab:(2 Circuits)

• 
  [*:2sns0cp2]10 Jefferson Curls
  [*:2sns0cp2]5 Wall Walks
  [*:2sns0cp2]10 Wrist Pushups
  [*:2sns0cp2]10 Wall Extensions

Evening Strength Routine:

Note:All FBEs are done with 3 sets of 5 reps and alternated with a single set of the paired FSP.

• 
  [*:2sns0cp2]Planche Pairing
  
  • 
    [*:2sns0cp2]Frog Stand: 15 Second Sets
    
    • 
      [*:2sns0cp2]Monday: HeSPU Negatives
      [*:2sns0cp2]Tuesday: XR Pushups
      [*:2sns0cp2]Thursday: XR Bulgarian Pushups
      [*:2sns0cp2]Friday: XR Dips

[*:2sns0cp2]Back Lever Pairing

• 
  [*:2sns0cp2]Tuck Back Lever: 9 Second Sets
  
  • 
    [*:2sns0cp2]Monday: XR Rows
    [*:2sns0cp2]Tuesday: XR Pullups
    [*:2sns0cp2]Thursday: Towel Pullups
    [*:2sns0cp2]Friday: XR Inverted Chinups

[*:2sns0cp2]Front Lever Pairing

• 
  [*:2sns0cp2]Tuck Front Lever: 6 Second Sets
  
  • 
    [*:2sns0cp2]Monday: Deck Squats
    [*:2sns0cp2]Tuesday: Natural Leg Curls
    [*:2sns0cp2]Thursday: SLS Negatives
    [*:2sns0cp2]Friday: Half Glute Ham Raises

[*:2sns0cp2]L-Sit Pairing

• 
  [*:2sns0cp2]XR L-Sit: 6 Second Sets
  
  • 
    [*:2sns0cp2]Monday: XR Reverse Leg Lifts
    [*:2sns0cp2]Tuesday: Windshield Wipers
    [*:2sns0cp2]Thursday: V-Ups
    [*:2sns0cp2]Friday: Hanging Leg Lifts

Thought about posting this in a log, but figured it'd be better to keep it in one place.

My first week went very well. I seemed to have settled on a decent set of exercises that challenged me (especially on the third set). I removed the snatch complex from my GPP and added cats/cows into the prehab based on some feedback from Coach in one of my other threads. The V-up variation I settled on was the straddle L, and the natural leg curls were negatives.

My left elbow felt a little irritated at the end of each workout (Tuesday and Friday especially). The one day rest on Wednesday did me a lot of good, so I am hoping the weekend of rest will do me even better. I was able to note on Friday that it was the Front Lever work causing me the most irritation. As long as it keeps getting gradually better then I think it will be okay, if it starts lasting for longer or happening earlier then I will have to revisit the plan.

I am still interested on the best policy for static hold work in a cycle like this. What I picked seemed to work pretty well, but for sets where I am only doing 9 or 6 second holds I just wonder if it is enough.

- Chris