Schedule question - Fitting F1, Stretch and H1 & 2 into one week

Hello,

I realize this question has been asked before for combining various modules, but unfortunately I couldn't find anything for my specific situation.

The course suggests to do F1 (you can split this up in various ways), three stretch workouts per week and ideally handstand 1 and 2 two times per week. But I could not find a schedule that actually lists this as an example, so this is what I came up with for myself:

My goal is to fit into one week:

F1-split 4 times per week

H1/H2 2 times per week

Stretch series 3 times per week

I'm still searching for the optimal way to schedule the workouts. The previous week I managed it for the first time and the schedule looked like this:

Mon: F1 (4 exercises)

Tue: F1 (remaining 3 exercises) + MSs

Wed: H1 & H2

Thu: TBs

Fri:  F1 (4)

Sat: F1 (3)

Sun: H1 & H2 + FSs

This is a total amount of around 8 hrs of training time, spread over 7 days.

What I noticed:

I can't combine TBs with handstand work, because it works the upper body very hard. Even doing the TBs before or after a handstand day caused some problems for me, although it's getting less.

Combining the F1 where you do squats with the MSs is also a bit hard on the legs. Maybe this too needs some getting used to.

Handstands are for me a good combination with a leg stretch (FS or MS).

I noticed a big improvement in strength in the F1 series since I split it instead of doing F7. F7 is just too much for me to do in one workout. Form suffers and after the workout I'm ready to fall asleep for the rest of the day.

Questions:

There is no real rest day. Can this have consequences in the long run?

Is there anyone else who has found a way to combine these three modules in a way that works well?

Also, I used to do a Krav Maga workout on Saturday, which I cannot quite fit in with GB, since I need to recover and it is an extra 1.5 hrs of high intensity training. Does anyone have the same problem or is there a way to fit this in a week like this without overtraining?

Thank you.

Hi Niko,

You are still attempting too much work too quickly in your GST career.  It may help to remember that each of the GB courses do not exist in isolation, but actually have a synergistic effect on each other.  

I would recommend scaling your weekly workouts down as follows:

- Drop Foundation down to twice per week.

- Drop Handstand down to once per week.  

- Drop Stretch down to twice per week on a rotating schedule.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Thank you coach Sommer, will do. To be sure that I understand this correctly; a week like the one you just described, would it look like something like this?

Mon: F1 (part A)

Tue: F1 (part B)

Wed: H1/H2

Thur:REST

Fri:FSs

Sat:MSs

Sun:REST

This amounts to approximately 4.5 hrs of workout-time per week, which is a huge difference compared to what I'm doing now (7-8 hrs per week).

Personally, I don't mind scaling down at all. I don't want to be the "immature athlete" you mention in your podcasts .

My question is, is the 5 hrs work-out time per week a good ballpark figure to have as maximum training time per week "indefinitely", or is there a point where I should think about increasing it in the (near) future?

Or is it about the intensity of the workouts, regardless of training time? For example, 45mins of F1 work is a harder than 45 mins of FSs. I'm looking for a way to know when I'm doing enough, without doing too much.

Thank you.

The time spent per week is not the focus. The focus is on scheduling workouts that are appropriate for your level and recovering well from them. 

40 minutes ago, Everett Carroll said:

The time spent per week is not the focus. The focus is on scheduling workouts that are appropriate for your level and recovering well from them. 

Thanks for the reply Everett, but I still like to have a bit more of specifics so that I know what to do and how to plan my workouts in practice.

F1 is like the name says the foundation of the course. HS 1/2 and Stretch are seen as a co-requisite for F1. This means that they should be trained simultaneously. I've read in several places on the site that "ideally" you do the Stretch workouts 3x per week and HS1/2 2x per week.

Perhaps I misunderstood this.

Since I already was doing F1-split during the week (like the scheduler said, on Mon/Tue and then on Thu/Fri), when I added the Stretch and HS, I was under the impression that I should do them 3x and 2x per week respectively. I thought that that was the "ideal" workout load.

The first month of GST I was only doing F1-split 4x per week, then I added HS1/2 the second month, and then added Stretches the third month. It was a bit confusing how much to do, since I read they were co-requisites, so I had to figure out how to plan them. In terms of recovery, I felt good, until I added the TB every week, then I noticed that my F1 and HS suffered from being sore from TB.

The past three weeks, I did the full schedule mentioned at the top, which felt a bit too much in terms of planning and also in terms of fatigue, that's why I posted the question.

When you say that the focus is on scheduling workouts that are appropriate for my level and recovery, this means that there exists a method of figuring out what is appropriate for my level and my recovery. I don't know how I am supposed to do that, except for watching my fatigue levels (like I've always done up till now).

When I feel that I'm too sore, or too tired to train, I don't train. As soon as I feel rested, I resume training.

Coach Sommer suggested to scale down my workouts, and I agree (see my answer above).

However, how do I know when to scale up again or even scale down some more? Are there specific methods to use? For example, the process of how to test for mastery for a specific exercise is completely clear to me.

Is there a similar process of testing my current appropriate workload level and recovery ability?

Help much appreciated.

The idea, as I've understood it, is to start with less and build up gradually as you feel you can do more.  The emphasis here is also on the gradual part of the build up.  If you have one good week, where you've been getting a lot of sleep, eating well, no stress etc and you feel good, that probably doesn't indicate that you can do a schedule change, maybe just go for a run/swim/bikeride or  something.  If you get through a couple of cycles, and are not looking forwardto deload week, and feel you can do more, then it might indicate a schedule rework is in order.

There is no rush.  Consistency is the key, not volume.

Thanks Wayne,

Everything is a bit clearer now. I mistakenly used the maximum recommendations for the prerequisites, instead of slowly building up to the volume.

Hmm, my schedule so far has been:

Mon: F1 (part A) + evening class Yoga

Tue: F1 (part B) + H1

Wed: MSs

Thur: F1 (part A) + H1

Fri: F1 (part B) + H1

Sat: FSs

Sun: TBs

This schedule works fine for me as it breaks the week in two parts with stretches in between. I can also drop a stretching series if I am particular active during the weekend and then rotate the stretch sequence for the following week.

Am in my sixties and as I am improving my form, the amount of work is slowly getting too much, so maybe I need to slow done a bit.

André

Less is often times more, Andre. It is good to catch it early before the volume causes excessive fatigue or injury. 

@Niko Mailand I'm glad you caught that. Recovery is dependant on the individual so more volume does not always equal more improvement.

@Niko Mailand I am also constantly tweaking my schedule, as I have been adding more programs into my possession. I feel like I am changing the schedule almost every week, to find out the optimal schedule, which my body is telling me  :-)  Currently, I do:

Mon: F1 (all 7)

Tue: MSS (and my pole fitness training)

Wed: F1 (all 7)

Thu: H1 (maybe some extra glute training)

Fri: F1 (all 7)

Sat:  H1 and FSS

Sun: pole training followed by TBS

I pretty much ditched all my other weight training from my schedule for the past two weeks. Occasionally I do a few short weight sessions for my glutes so they would stay round and perky  :-)  

Last week I did 3 times H1 and 2 times F1 and it worked well too, just trying something different this week. I need to get those rings and push-ups stronger… 

Also, I have to say that my diet is pretty much excellent (no processed food, all fresh, organic, and mostly raw) so I do recover quite fast. And I have eliminated the majority of the stress from my life. I am a little sore from the training, but it moves around different body parts depending on what I was training, so I know that's ok and not overstressing my body  and I can keep going. I also do extra myofascial release almost every day for a little bit. If I feel getting too tired (maybe every 3rd week or so, I just do the stretching session and it is like my day off from training. 

@Suzanna McGee

That's a pretty hectic schedule  

I tried to prepare myself as well as possible before starting with F1, and I got confused when I had to plan the co-requisite courses. The scheduler just asks you how many times you want to train each week. It would be nice if you have a warning comment saying: if this is your first week/month/year doing F1 start with max 1 HS per week and 1 Stretch and only increase it when it feels too easy. I read somewhere in the course that ideally you should do the HS 2x per week and Stretch 3x per week, so I concluded that that was the way to go.

This week I scaled down my schedule, like coach Sommer, Everett and Andre advised, and I think that I will be much better of in the longer term in terms of progress, recovery, energy levels and time-management. The previous schedule felt like I was actually competing in the Olympics, it was a bit too much, now it feels more like I'm preparing for the Olympics

I'm glad I found this out on time, because I don't think I could keep up with this volume in the longer run, I already had noticed that I was losing weight.

I too, like you, eat 100% organic, 100% vegan (70% raw-30% cooked/baked) and I notice that I recover as fast or even faster than when I was in my 20s eating the SAD diet (I'm 40 now).  The myofascial release is an excellent idea and I will try to implement it more after workouts.

I'm always impressed when people do F7. I did in the beginning, but it takes me almost 2 hours and when it's finished I just want to go to sleep and can't do anything afterwards, which is a bit of a hassle when you have still have to work 8-9 hrs. I decided to split it, which takes exactly 1 hr per workout, and now it's perfect.

Thank you for sharing your way of doing things, always inspiring,

Niko

@Niko Mailand I've been training all my life. Something. With weights very regularly the past 30 years (I am 51 now). And the last many years, I guess since I became a vegan and recovering so well, I've been training a lot, every day. Many different things: weights, tennis, stretching, walking, kettlebells, then I added pole fitness which led me to GST… thanks to GST and my revelations how amazing it is to use my body in ways I haven't done so much before (well… or I am preparing for using my body these ways) , I put aside the majority of my old training and focusing just on the pole and GST (and a few other things). In my training, I have been doing many things that I am now finding in GST, only I used to do them not organized like this. So many exercises are familiar and not too difficult, but I bet it gets very different as I am climbing higher up in the progressions. 

Doing F7 took me almost two hours in the beginning… which was ok because before, I used to do 90 minutes weights and 500 abs, which was almost 2 hours too. So I am just doing GST instead… Now I have decided to stop moaning and groaning and feeling tired after each set (ha ha) and just jump on the next exercise, and move move move. Today I did it maybe 15–20 minutes faster. 

I am thinking that maybe as I climb higher in the progression levels and I start doing exercises that I am not so familiar with, I will (yet again) need to adjust my schedule and maybe split it… or who knows what I will do. I will listen to my body. Or if I do more pole fitness (which I need to do to be able to improve, but I had to get stronger first), then I may do a little less of F1. We'll see. I am glad that you have figured out something that works for you. Maybe later you will adjust it again, to something new. I work too, and sometimes my schedule gets crazy, and I need to adjust my GST training accordingly. Not to skip, but maybe switch the days and programs a little bit.