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Extra pancake work and spreading out stretch series.

Started by David Ruben, September 9, 2016 · 3 Replies · 141 Views

David Ruben

I believe this is my first post so Hello all, great community here, love GB! 

Im the type of person that likes to follow directions and right now I adhere strictly to the program as it is outlined for me. Im also aware coach says to do the stretch series no more than once per week because it will cause me to be too tired and slow my progress. FYI I currently i do foundation 1 Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri, and all 3 stretch series on wed. Im also doing Thrive. 

With that said, my first question is can i work my super tight problem areas a little more during the week? Im not looking to do the entire stretch workout again or anything like that. Most of the stretches i feel are making progress but my pancake is super tight (like a few others i seen commenting in here) to the point where i dont feel like im getting an effective stretch. Is it ok to do some extra butterfly, frog,  or hip swivel type stuff in addition to the stretch series? If so how often is acceptable?

My second question is can i spread the series throughout the week or is it better to just keep it all in one day? Im asking because sometimes its tough to get a full 8 hours of sleep when i work all day and then still have 2 1/2 hours of stretching in addition to other after work tasks like prepping meals, errands, laundry etc. Im not complaining at all, I've been sticking to the schedule as its been provided and will continue to do so if thats whats best. I just understand the importance of sleep and dont want to fall behind on sleep at all. If i have a long day at work i might only have 2 or 3 hours left in the day before i start cutting into my 8 hour sleep window. Which means i have to rush home, scarf down a meal, stretch and go straight to bed to get 7 or 8 hours of sleep. Schedule wise it would be ideal for me to do my front split and middle split series on my SLS days (Tues & Thurs) and then only have to do the thoracic series on my normal stretch day (wed).

What do you guys think?

Alessandro Mainente

Hi David:

-of course you can use 1-2 exercises from the pancake course more times is a week.my preference is the side to side squat, holding the bottom part for time (45 sec at least), with feet parallel then with feet at 45°.

-for the schedule you can have a "rest day" in between legs session. so you can do front split on monday, shoulders course on wedn and middle split on friday.

Guido Franchetti

Hi David, I am pretty sure that Coach advised against doing all three stretches on the same day somewhere on the forum. I think that the best thing would be doing them on three separate days, with maximum separation between MS and FS, for example with the schedule that Alessandro suggested. You can surely do the stretches after (but not before) a Foundation workout. Finally many people got very good results by doing only two of the stretches courses per week and rotating them.

David Ruben

Awesome thanks for the help guys.