Rotate All Split Series or Focus on One if Short of Time?

Hello all,

Do any of the forum coaches have a view on whether, if I only have time for one stretch session a week, I should focus on one of them (currently MS), or rotate all three?

Here's the background....

At the moment I do each of the foundation and handstand series sets twice a week. I'm enjoying it, making reasonable progress (at least 'progress that I'm happy with' ), and that's all good.

In addition, I do MS once a week.

Alongside that, I do kung fu training Monday and Wednesday and Friday evenings. These lessons involve a bit of cardio, stretching (what I've seen called ballistic stretching in these forums), techniques, patterns, weapons, sparring...so you can imagine there's a lot to fit in! The reason I started doing MS was that I found I wasn't very consistent with doing my own stretching outside of kung fu classes and was looking for a clear programme...and I've really enjoyed it.

So, the context is that I'm not going to be able to find the time to do weekly TB and FS sessions as well, much as I'd like to.

I'm thinking of a few alternatives, so would appreciate any views on these...and of course whether there's another alternative that makes sense that I haven't thought of:

1. Drop one of my other foundation or handstand sessions and replace with one of the other split sessions. I'm feeling that this is probably not a good idea; the strength and stamina gains from the foundation training are really helping in all my other activities, and I don't really want to slow the progress in that. I'm also starting to notice how improvements in one area are helping in another, so I imagine from a higher level perspective, more foundation work is better where possible.

2. Stick with MS as my single stretch session, at least for now, and then bring the other split series in later. But when? When I'm able to do a middle split? That could be years, which means I'm forgoing improved flexibility in other areas until then. I know from my kung fu training that you get benefits from stretching even before you can do the full split. For example, I can kick quite high even though I'm a long way from being able to do a middle split.

3. Purchase the other split series so that at least I have them available to me, and then alternate each week, or perhaps dip into them as and when time allows.

I have a suspicion that option 3 might work. Sure, if the single goal is to do a middle split to show my mum, then I'd best make sure I'm doing it once a week and every week! But as I said, I know from my kung fu training that stretching brings rewards long before the final goal of a full split, and although I'd love to be able to do a middle split, my real goal is improved flexibility.

I get the impression that stretching is actually quite cumulative, i.e., it's not as if you'd slip backwards in flexibility if you did a series every 3 weeks rather than every week. But of course, I have no idea if that's true or not.

Apologies for the long post, but it's something I've been pondering for a few months.

Hi Mark,

Awesome question. Without a doubt, add the other two stretch courses to your library and, if time is limited, rotate through them. Also, at this stage, replacing a handstand workout with stretch is going to be more beneficial.

Get in one HS workout a week, keep your Foundation workouts as is, and shoot for all three stretch workouts each week. If you only get one or two stretch workouts, that's okay. Just put them on a rotation as was already mentioned. 

7 hours ago, Mark Birbeck said:

But as I said, I know from my kung fu training that stretching brings rewards long before the final goal of a full split, and although I'd love to be able to do a middle split, my real goal is improved flexibility.

I get the impression that stretching is actually quite cumulative, i.e., it's not as if you'd slip backwards in flexibility if you did a series every 3 weeks rather than every week. But of course, I have no idea if that's true or not.

 

You have the right idea here. This is why I'm recommending exposure to all three stretch series. 

2 hours ago, Everett Carroll said:

Without a doubt, add the other two stretch courses to your library and, if time is limited, rotate through them. Also, at this stage, replacing a handstand workout with stretch is going to be more beneficial.

 

Wow...Everett...that's a great idea.

It will mean at the very least that I'm doing each series twice every three weeks, which is much better than once every three.

And by the look of the segment of TB that I saw in the sample video, it will probably help me get past step 9 of HS1/PE4 where I've been sat for quite a while due to failing iM!

There's a public holiday here in the UK on Monday, so perhaps I'll be able to squeeze in an extra session and make a start...... 

Anyway, thank-you so much for getting back so quickly, and for your clear guidance.