New to the Forum & A few questions

Hey all, 

I am new to GST and am starting the foundations 1 program this week. I am coming off a serious case of bilateral tendinitis. after 4 months of rehab I was finally given the okay to start training again. 

I just have a few questions and would greatly appreciate any advice. 

1) Rest times

- I am wondering what rest times are recommended for the foundation program? In the past for strength training I would always rest around 3 minutes in between sets, but didnt know if there was a different protocol for GST. Thoughts? 

2) Training Split

- What is a good recommended training split for the foundations course? 

I was thinking Upper Body Tue Fri and Lower body Mon Thu but thought I would check and see if there any other recommendations. 

Hi Ryan,

1) There should be no rest in between sets and reps in a certain element. After finishing an element then you may rest before proceeding to the next exercise.

2) It would be best to do Upper body, Core and Lower Body in a single day but if your schedule does not permit then you can adjust accordingly.

3) Since you just got back from serious tendinitis and was already cleared with a go signal then you should feel how your training goes and never force it.

I hope this helps.

29 minutes ago, Leo Trinidad said:

Hi Ryan,

1) There should be no rest in between sets and reps in a certain element. After finishing an element then you may rest before proceeding to the next exercise. 

2) It would be best to do Upper body, Core and Lower Body in a single day but if your schedule does not permit then you can adjust accordingly.

3) Since you just got back from serious tendinitis and was already cleared with a go signal then you should feel how your training goes and never force it.

I hope this helps.

Thanks for the reply! 

Interesting that you say no rest periods in between sets. So I just do the paired mobility then jump right back into the next set?

The reason I say interesting is that it contradicts everything I've read in Overcoming Gravity and the general principles of strength training (that I know of), that all seem to recommend full rest periods in between sets to. I will follow your advice, but could you please elaborate more on why we are using no rest periods? Also I am a 4th year kinesiology major in college so please feel free to use more scientific lingo if needed.  

7 hours ago, Ryan Segervall said:

Thanks for the reply! 

Interesting that you say no rest periods in between sets. So I just do the paired mobility then jump right back into the next set?

The reason I say interesting is that it contradicts everything I've read in Overcoming Gravity and the general principles of strength training (that I know of), that all seem to recommend full rest periods in between sets to. I will follow your advice, but could you please elaborate more on why we are using no rest periods? Also I am a 4th year kinesiology major in college so please feel free to use more scientific lingo if needed.  

the contradiction it is exactly on OG where the author does not take in consideration that beginners must use their first year to develop work capacity. work capacity means:

-work for a prolonged period of at least 12-15 sec up to 40-60 seconds

-the rest must be used as active recovery and IM are perfect for that

-rest must be comprised between 30'' and 60'' that is basically what's happen when you use the IM as an active rest.

3 hours ago, Alessandro Mainente said:

the contradiction it is exactly on OG where the author does not take in consideration that beginners must use their first year to develop work capacity. work capacity means:

-work for a prolonged period of at least 12-15 sec up to 40-60 seconds

-the rest must be used as active recovery and IM are perfect for that

-rest must be comprised between 30'' and 60'' that is basically what's happen when you use the IM as an active rest.

Thank you for the reply!

Helps me understand the purpose of the training and have a clear goal set in mind for the next upcoming months of my training  

Hi Ryan,

Another point to consider is that is it was continually performing strength work at too high an intensity that led to your tendonitis in the first place.  

In addition to building work capacity, proceeding immediately to active rest with the iMs in between work sets helps to control this tendency of beginners to over strain their connective tissue.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

18 hours ago, Alessandro Mainente said:

-rest must be comprised between 30'' and 60'' that is basically what's happen when you use the IM as an active rest.

Except that sometimes the IM is nowhere near 30s.  (I am sure 5x60s straddle hold would be a little bit easier with more than just 5 reps of table top in between each one...) :-)

16 minutes ago, Paul McLachlan said:

Except that sometimes the IM is nowhere near 30s.  (I am sure 5x60s straddle hold would be a little bit easier with more than just 5 reps of table top in between each one...) :-)

In this instance would you still want to make sure your resting upwards of 30-60 seconds? Rather than banging out 5 quick table tops in say 15 seconds? 

19 hours ago, Ryan Segervall said:

In this instance would you still want to make sure your resting upwards of 30-60 seconds? Rather than banging out 5 quick table tops in say 15 seconds? 

 

@Ryan Segervall, no - when you do it with the follow-along video (which Coach has said is the tempo to aim for), the table tops take less than 30s and then it's straight back into the straddle hold.

On Tuesday, November 01, 2016 at 2:54 PM, Ryan Segervall said:

In this instance would you still want to make sure your resting upwards of 30-60 seconds? Rather than banging out 5 quick table tops in say 15 seconds? 

 

Neither bounce nor shorten the ROM, it doesn't need to be glacially slow but make sure there's a stretch in there, and don't sweat much else