Program/Scheduling

Hi Guys,

Doing Foundations 1 (FL, HBP, Mn, SL, SLS, SP but not RC due to equipment), along with the FS, MS and TB stretch program.

I've searched all over, but can't find the answer - when starting, what's a good workload in terms of scheduling? Was thinking something like the following to start with?

Mon - FS and FL

Tue - HBP

Wed - TB and SLS

Thu - Mn

Fri - MS and SL

Sat - SP

Sun - Rest

There is no "good workload" because you want to set and adjust that based on your recovery abilties. The workout scheduler has example templates and we always recommend starting with less. Here is the link to example programming: https://my.gymnasticbodies.com/f-cycles-examples/

A good start with F1 is 3x/wk split where on one day you do 4 (a) elements, on 2nd the other 3 elements (b) and on 3rd day the same 4 elements (a) again. Make sure to swap to B-A-B days the following week and A-B-A in the 3rd week again. You will come up with a schedule suitable for you once you can accurately determine your recovery and progress.

Stretch as preferred. 

11 hours ago, Vytautas Pilkauskas said:

A good start with F1 is 3x/wk split where on one day you do 4 (a) elements, on 2nd the other 3 elements (b) and on 3rd day the same 4 elements (a) again. Make sure to swap to B-A-B days the following week and A-B-A in the 3rd week again. You will come up with a schedule suitable for you once you can accurately determine your recovery and progress.

Stretch as preferred. 

I do this. Occasionally I get a little restless as I am craving some more volume, but I can add any random or dumb activity to burn it off without affecting the slow steady improvement of my core training

5 hours ago, Jon Douglas said:

I do this. Occasionally I get a little restless as I am craving some more volume, but I can add any random or dumb activity to burn it off without affecting the slow steady improvement of my core training

Jon,

still seeing results with 3 days?

7 hours ago, Costas Karakatsanis said:

Jon,

still seeing results with 3 days?

Oh yes. 

I switched back to 3 days a week too, mostly because I couldn't accomodate the giant limber+F7+Stretch sessions anymore. It hasn't been long enough to notice progress or lack thereof, but I'm not afraid as it has worked in the past and it keeps motivation high as workouts are not as 'daunting'. Added a nice weighted mobility circuit at the end of my H-sessions, hoping to see progress from that too. 

I imagine that motivation is a key benefit of the 3day split. The only thing is that on rotation some elements are addressed once per week. Doesn't this cause stalling of continuous progress?

On the other hand F7 can be a little bit scary sometimes.....

For beginners you can find that sometime once a week it is better the twice a week , so it is fine. when you are engaged on strength training for at  least 7-10 years you need for sure more volume.

7 hours ago, Alessandro Mainente said:

For beginners you can find that sometime once a week it is better the twice a week , so it is fine. when you are engaged on strength training for at  least 7-10 years you need for sure more volume.

Do you think with F1 having more volume (i.e. reps) an F7 twice a week is ok? or broken in 4 days for a 3 year trainee?

Either one is fine, Costas.

@Ben Barclay definitely give the three day split workout schedule a-go, with the stretch series as a cooldown. Add the handstand work on tuesday and thursday and you're pretty set. Unless you work in a gym or physical therapy/training is your occupation you'll find that that suits you well. On the other hand, if that's too easy you can certainly bump up in scale and do 4 day splits or F7, if you're overly ambitious (or you could just add in other activities: hiking, lifting, soulcycle, bouldering, etc.). I do the 3-day split and with Pro+ I've seen solid progress after coming back to GB about two months ago. 

Not forgetting of course that I train GST 6 days a week and am fairly physically active the rest of the time; scale your volume as per your lifestyle and commitments  

As an added question here.. what are the coaches thoughts on breaking up the workout throughout the day. 

IE.. on a day where I'm doing four exercises is it OK to do two of them in the morning and two in the afternoon. Or is it just better to do all for at once?

I'm having weeks where with my 2 year old daughter, dog, and work is hard to get 30 min away, but if I did 15 in the am and 15 in the pm that'd help.

Thanks,

Max

5 hours ago, Max Wallach said:

As an added question here.. what are the coaches thoughts on breaking up the workout throughout the day. 

IE.. on a day where I'm doing four exercises is it OK to do two of them in the morning and two in the afternoon. Or is it just better to do all for at once?

I'm having weeks where with my 2 year old daughter, dog, and work is hard to get 30 min away, but if I did 15 in the am and 15 in the pm that'd help.

Thanks,

Max

Not optimal (on the training side), but doing it puts you incomparably ahead of not doing it

Jon Douglas/Coaches:  grateful if you could clarify the above response for me.  The new grouping of exercises includes 3 separate exercises/mobility (in the case of the Core and the Upper Body).  Each exercise and IM has a separate Follow Along video.  Is the intention that those 3 exercises should be performed back-to-back as a super-set, maintaining the same kind of tempo when moving from one exercise to the next (i.e finish one video and jump straight into the next)?  Or is the intention that we should take a break between exercises to allow recovery?  I am assuming it is the recovery model (ideally active recovery) but can you please confirm?  Otherwise, ability to perform an exercise (and select the appropriate smiley face) will be very much dependant on which exercise you start with.  Thanks in advance; Martin

Hi Martin,

You want to take as little rest as possible in between every transition. Jumping right into the next is ideal.

On September 5, 2016 at 9:29 PM, Costas Karakatsanis said:

On the other hand F7 can be a little bit scary sometimes.....

Scary, maybe. Intense, for sure. But then you know that if you can do F7, anything else will be easy   This week, I've tried F7 three times, and H1/H2 twice. (plus my 3 stretch programs). Next week, I'll flip it around, H1/H2 three times, and F7 twice… it's definitely intense, but I love it. However, like @Alessandro Mainente mentioned that years and year of strength training allow you to handle more volume, I have been doing strength training for over 30 years… not GST, just "regular" strength training, and in high volumes, so I think my body can handle it. If your body can handle F7, try it, just for another stimuli. 

On 30 September 2016 at 5:47 PM, Everett Carroll said:

Hi Martin,

You want to take as little rest as possible in between every transition. Jumping right into the next is ideal.

Thanks Everett.  Out of curiosity, is there a strict order in which we should do the exercises?  For example, my Upper Body for this week has, from top of the screen to bottom of the screen, 1. a push exercise (scapular shrugs), 2.  a second push exercise (push-ups) and 3.  a pull exercise (rows).  My inclination would be to do these in the order of Push, Pull, Push.  The net question is whether the exercises are presented (top to bottom) in a deliberate order or is the expectation that we use a pinch of common sense?  Assume it's the latter but I thought I should check in case some thinking has already gone into this.

Martin

Hi Martin,

You don't need to focus on a strict order; I prefer to do them as listed just to keep things simple. 

Hi Martin,

For the duration of F1 perform the exercises in the order in which the follow along workout videos are generated.  The videos are meant to be followed from beginning to end, moving seamlessly from one exercise to another.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

@Ben Barclay +1 to @Daniel Taylor-Shaut's A/B split endorsement, with handstand & stretching mixed in (consistently) where they fit. That's what I'm doing, and every workout day is an incremental improvement over the last one (even if the increment is small sometimes). I wouldn't always see that when I was doing more work, even though I felt like I was recovering.

Sorry to take the thread off track but can someone tell me what F7 refers to?  I am assuming its performing each of 7 exercise pairs.  I am fairly new to GST and have just started doing foundation 1.  I am currently doing all the exercises twice a week.  I will adjust this going forward as the workouts get tougher/longer.  I will also look to add other elements alongside once I have got my head around Foundation 1.

39 minutes ago, Joshua Hibbert said:

Sorry to take the thread off track but can someone tell me what F7 refers to?  I am assuming its performing each of 7 exercise pairs.  I am fairly new to GST and have just started doing foundation 1.  I am currently doing all the exercises twice a week.  I will adjust this going forward as the workouts get tougher/longer.  I will also look to add other elements alongside once I have got my head around Foundation 1.

That's right it's referring to all 7 of the progressions done in one session.