How much is too much?

In the ceaseless inner dialogue of navigating my workout scheduling, I find myself asking this question over and over again. It's come up as a result of repeated feelings of burnout (which -- duh do not promote recovery, adaptation or adequate increases in the myriad benefits from exercise, due to systematic fallout of workout inconsistency). Between two, three or four Foundation workouts, one or two handstand workouts, and  the three stretch series, I'm having a hard time finding the right balance for me.

 

Obviously, this is a subjective issue. My initial supposition would be to drop back to a 3-day foundation schedule with F3/F4 split workouts and then add in two H1 workouts in between (on Tuesday and Thursday). Doing that, and then including the stretch series, however, ends up being about the same time in the gym exercising as I spend now. If I didn't change anything I would be continuing with two F7 workouts (Monday and Friday) and then the stretch series on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Handstand 1 on Wednesday. I mean, are the F7 workouts necessary? I've come to understand it that upon Foundation Four (which I'm months, if not years away from) one needs to be able to perform F7 as a warm-up to the workout. Based on this assumption I applied myself and strived to do the least number of workouts possible with F7 (twice a week) but have found that that has been too much to bear.

 

Has anyone else faced a similar dilemma or have further insights? I've scaled it back and then scaled it forward repeatedly over varying microcycles but am still struggling to find the right balance where I can last a micro-cycle and not feel sluggish and burned out by either week's end or the conclusion of the microcycle. (Currently, I'm on my week 4 deload, today was to a TBs stretch and tomorrow was to be the second F7 workout of the week, however, I woke up low energy and motivation).

 

Before assumptions about other variants in my life come up, I sleep 7-8 hours a night, drink ample water/minerals, and eat single-ingredient foods in a diet chock full of all the organic, free-range, you name it dietary supplements one could think of/afford.

"Too much" is when you are no longer making progress. A major part of the issue is that you feel the need to constantly adjust what you're doing. Stick with simple. When simple is no longer sufficient to make steady improvement, THEN add to it. GST is not a sprint. Do the schedule that you can consistently show up for, give your best during the workout and forget all about it once you're out the door.

you want to do the least effort to make gains. Lets say you are pushing your limits all the time, what happens is your body gets used to it. Then in order to make gains you have to do even more work, and this snowballs to your own doom xD

 

I think you might have gotten the idea Korija. Maybe. Based on this approach then, less is more and be patient. 

 

So, judging from that I will skip back to F3/F4 and watch for whether any progress is made.  

Daniel, if you're doing the three or four day split (what you refer to as F3/F4), I would highly recommend doing H1 in the same session. That instantly gives you two extra rest days per week.

Considered... I just have a hard time making sense of it while also not overindulging. So initially, I'll give it a shot doing 

 

Monday: Foundation (split with 3 movements), Handstand 1

Tuesday: Stretch series (FSs)

Wednesday: Foundation (split with 4 movements), Handstand 1

Thursday Stretch series (MSs)

Friday: Foundation (split with 3 movements), Stretch series (TBs)

 

Hopefully, this allows me more rest, but we'll see.

Stretch series was too hard on me for rest days so I do this

MWF F7 in the morning and then in the evening I do h1/ jiu jitsu drills (the basics, ten minutes just to reinforce patterns and get heart rate up)/Stretch

Yeah, I work and commute, so I can't do F7 in the mornings of Monday and Wednesday. Furthermore, F7 in general, has left me feeling burnt out when performed in conjunction with H1 and the Stretch series. So while that plan works for you, which is great, I fear that that would be too much exertion for me.

First, what are your goals? And how much are you willing to trade for them? Social life? Family time?

I've had to make this decision as well, and I've come to accept slower progress in exchange for feeling better and getting some more balance. I was doing MWF F3/4 and doing H1 on TR. I found that my recovery was bad, I was feeling pressed for time, and I still wasn't getting in any stretching. For me, the recovery was the real problem. Shoulders always felt sore, and with 2 young children, my sleep wasn't always good. Something had to give.

So I switched to F7 on TF, and I do H1 one night per week. I added back yoga on Sunday, did a few weeks of week 1 of my micro cycle, and my recovery has improved. Yeah, not making as much progress, but I feel better, and that's the point of all of this. Now I'm trying to figure out how to fit in stretch one or two days a week at lunch. But the whole point of this to me is moving better and feeling better, so it needs to be slow, at least for me. I'd love to have the work capacit to do more, but that takes time to build. And there are many competing goals, so I have to get down to the question of why I do this, and how to organize around that.

Good luck.

I agree with the advice here. something I had a hard time swallowing at first about what schedule i "should" be doing in place of which schedule I thrived on. i'm doing an unorthodox 4day schedule that i'm thriving on physically and mentally, where as before i actually tried it i thought it was going to be a failure. yet still, progressions keep moving and i keep improving. so goes to show that what might not look ideal on paper or in your brain, may be exactly what you need.

just experiment. the worse that can happen is that you gain some knowledge about where your body currently is....and thats actually a very good thing.

i do not make progress on more than 1 day per week of F1 . And even then , i sometimes take MORE rest days if i feel i wont be able to progress in the next workout .

When i tried the 3 day split , i ALWAYS got sick ( fever , sore throat , viral , etc ) around the 3rd week .

Much appreciated. I'm going to give the split workouts three days a week a try. I did that before but got overzealous in my competency and impatient in my progress

Some of this is covered in the last third of this video.

In past forums, looking into the split version being F4 first then F3, w/ handstands at the end, made sense.  F4 has planche and pushup movements; that's 2 routines that work the shoulders and I would not recommend adding the handstands on top of that the same day.  F3 on the other hand, is core routines and legs, perfect for handstands.

 

As for going F7, I understand you may feel a way after Monday.  How I analyzed my F7 is to do it on Mondays (with 2 days rest from it) and Thursdays (with 3 days rest from it).  And I would normally do Handstands on Tuesdays and Fridays.  This week I was a little off cause I skipped Monday and did F7 Tues/Fri and HS on Thursday.

 

And for stretching (for now regular I've been using for years with added bridge and seated hamstring stretch (received via GB email in the past)), I would get it in during the evenings before bed.  Yesterday I decided to stretch right after F7 though.

 

What I like about F7 vs. the split is the recovery time before getting into the push routine.  F4 has planche then push, hitting shoulders back to back vs. with F7 after Planche there is Oblique/Crunch/Legs before getting into push work.

 

Finally nutrition, only supplement I use is multivitamin called Men's One (it's both Gluten and Soy free).  And I try to eat more fruits, vegetables, and nuts (not as a vegan or vegetarian for I still eat meat).  And I still eat junk like a kid (example: I'm still loving those candied "Boston Baked Beans").  Some junk foods, your body will tell you "What the...!" as your tired and don't feel like doing anything after a while.  That's where you should be mindful to see what not to take in (reminding myself  ).

Kingzlo, I appreciate your input but I fail to see how that furthers the discussion on my issue with doing F7 and in how I could potentially rearrange my schedule.

Daniel, if your feeling burnt out during F7, just bring it down a notch (4 times a week vs. the 3 day split (which would be down 2 notches).  Start with F4 one day and  F3 (with Handstands) the next day; Mon/Tues/Thurs/Fri.  This I got from what others stated in past forums way back.  Do that during a mini cycle (or 2) and if you don't feel bad with it, stick with it until it feels like you can do F7 again, but if need be go down the 2 notches with the 3 day split, do so (I remember going there and feeling pretty strong and fully recovered).  

 

It's all based on how your body feels.  Every 'body' is different, and only you know your body and how it really feels.  So if anything, you may have just answered your own question.  

 

I think we all feel more tired at the week's end vs. the beginning overall.  But if your body feel fresh at the beginning of the week stick with where your at.  I know I felt tired out at and debate whether I should take another day off, but when I get it in, I'm in, and just think "is it worth doing over and over?" or "should I bring it down a notch?"