Question

In less than optimal circumstances, what would be the better of the three programs to give up under time constraints. I currently do all three but find myself pressed for time. Either I'm too sore to split up the routines or I don't have enough time to do it all in one go. I do Foundations 3-days a week, followed by H1 and then after the gym sessions I do the stretch series, Monday-Wednesday-Friday. If I alternate the stretch series to Tues/Thurs/Sat, I find myself too sore when I come back to Foundations/H1. So, I know that I need to do them all on the same day so as to take advantage of recovery. The question is less than optimal, because time is limited and with three part-time jobs and grad school, plus my commutes I find it hard to squeeze in all the exercise. Just wondering on people's thoughts. As it stands, I submit to sacrifice being late and on some days rushed to post-training events, so as to be sure to get all my F1/H1/SS training in.

 How much of this stuff can you do at home? That might save you A LOT of time versus going to the gym to do it.

How flexible/inflexible are you?

Have you considered just dialing back F to two days and H to 1 day? Your week might look like this:

Mon Fa, FSs

Wed H, MSs

Fri Fb, TBs

I decided to do more or less the same when I'm going back to Uni next week.

What about mixing it up like this? 

Mon    F4 + HS   SS

W        F7

F         F3+ HS    SS

Sat      SS

--

Mon   F4 + SS

Tue    HS

W       F7

Th      HS

Fri      F3 +  SS

Sat     SS

--

M /TH     F7  SS

Tue/Fri       HS  SS

Sat         SS

---

There are many ways to skin a cat

I recently dialed back to 2 elements each day, 4 days a week (F1+H1).   I feel like I'm progressing just as fast, if not faster, than I was previously, and I have way more energy each day.    Currently doing RC+SL, H+MN, HBP+SPl, FL+SLS.    This gives me some extra room for cardio, and/or a grease-the-groove day for RC.

The downside is that something is always sore.

Hmm, flexibility wise.... I'm no stud, but neither am I a zombie. I've contemplated doing them at home. The only kicker is the im for Jefferson Curls. I don't have any of that weight room equipment and being in NYC and in grad school leaves me not much space nor much money to create a setup in my apartment (which is by no means a permanent 'home'). I do the stretch series at my home and I can do Handstands here, too. I've contemplated doing ALL of it at the gym so as to just knock it out and then move on. But nowhere is ideal (I hate gyms for every reason any GST'er has iterated). 

I may cut back to doing 3-day Foundations, two days a week, but I somehow don't feel like I'll get enough stimuli to the muscle. As for now, until I figure out a better working pattern, I may just stick with what I have been doing even though it's not optimal usage of my time. Also, F7 leaves me on the floor and overstimulated for the next few hours (so PM training on F7 is a no-go). Saturdays are also not great for me because I have other things involved. Your insights are very helpful, keep them coming.

I've decided to forego the stretch series for a time, simply because I want to focus on getting stronger and more mobile through Foundations and Handstand ims and pes/ses. I clearly wish I had more time, and will work in the stretch series when able, but with three part-time jobs; grad school and thesis writing; and a long-time girlfriend; plus the insanity of navigating NYC public transportation, time is quite limited. Just thought I'd throw out my two cents and ultimately my decision for the time being (until my load lightens) since I was the one to initially post this topic. 

Doing Foundation, Handstand and Stretch courses can be very time consuming indeed. What helped me set the right schedule was to stop thinking about weeks as a 7 days period. My weeks start on Monday and end on Monday, rather than Sunday. I even remember someone stating that their weeks last 10 days! I find it very helpful since I can do little every day and get the stimulus that I need but still have time for everything else! Hopefully this will help you

My suggestion is focus on one weak point at time, so look for stretch series and see where you are more locked, then take the fundamental exercises of this series and spread them over the 7 days of the week. for your strong points I would do less work.

Thanks. That would be my straddle stretch and my thoracic/should flexibility. I've already started incorporated both in daily warmups as a much weaker, ancillary replacement to stretch series.

I think the clear answer is that you need to be doing the Stretch Series while on the NYC Subway. Photos please! 

Chris Garay said:

I think the clear answer is that you need to be doing the Stretch Series while on the NYC Subway. Photos please! 

SHOWTIME FOLKS! IT'S SHOWTIME! lol

On a more serious note I've adapted what Alessandro mentioned. In my daily warmup, since I'm still quite early on in Foundation to even need to do a proper workout warmup (as Coach and numerous others have stated), I plan to incorporate the major stretches from each of the stretch series. I do a series developed by Pavel Tsatsouline called 'super joints'. Cheeky as it is, it's helped, in the wake of not having time to knock out the follow-along stretch series. Therein, the 'major stretches from each of the stretch series' I will use will be: front split switches, the cossack squat/hip routine that Daniel Chan posted on his FB a while back (cossack to lunge to piriformis stretch then reverse through an STS squat); seated pancake straddle raises (to help my middle split and MN/PE2) rolling up into upright middle splits (aka roadkill splits); and then the 3 elevated thoracic bridge exercises from the thoracic bridges series (ETB holds, ETB pushups, and ETB hip taps).

There are a bunch of other mobilities involved. too: arm circles, neck rotations, elbow twists, door hangs, that have thus far helped loosen the joints and warm me up for the day and shake off evening stiffness, so I think that for now this will work with my schedule.

I intend to keep doing this routine and these exercises every day. The goal is start with 5 or so reps and work up to your age in the number of reps by adding a few reps more each week (which honestly speaking, will be a lot of ETB pushups and middle split raises, once I get there). Now, I know this is a less than optimal approach according to the GB approach, but for the time being it will be more than enough to help me maintain flexibility and pursue it incrementally while focusing on strength and mobility gains in Foundation and Handstand series.

Keep us updated!