Primate's Program - Feedback Appreciated

OK, so after 18 months off due to a wrist injury, a demanding job, a two year old to look after and several other irrelevant excuses, it's time to get back to Gymnastics. I've dusted off my copy of BtGB and this is what I propose as my training program.

About me: Male, Age: 32, Height: 5'11", Weight: 188 lbs - 20% Body fat

Goals: Increase functional strength, halve body fat, Straddle L to Handstand Press (eventually).

Proposal:

Monday: Workout A

Tuesday: Workout B

Thursday: Workout A

Friday: Workout B

Static Strength Elements (as many sets of half max hold as required to reach 60 second total)

Workout A L-Sit, Handstand, Front Lever; Workout B L-Straddle, Planche, Back Lever

Upper Body Pressing (3 sets of 5 reps)

Workout A Pushup, Dips; Workout B Handstand Pushup, Dips

Upper Body Pulling (3 sets of 5 reps)

Workout A Rows, Curls; Workout B Pullups, Curls

Core (3 sets 5 reps)

Workout A V-Ups, Hanging leg lift, lower back; Workout B Obliques, Front Pulls, Back Pulls

Legs (3 sets 5 reps)

Workout A Deck Squats, GHR; Workout B Single Leg Squats, GHR

I will be starting off mostly on the easiest variants in the progressions. I realise that there are no multiplane movements in this routine, but I feel that I need to develop some more fundamental stability and strength before adding these movements in. So I will train 4 days a week, each day being a total body workout. Needless to say copious amounts of stretching will also be included.

Hmm I don't see why you would empahsize dips/curls over the other press/pull. My recommendation would be to remove dips/curls from workout b, and then for workout A remove the leg porition, so your time is still the same.

Also...you should see how long this will take... sounds like a long time...

Also...do you have any prehab /stretching?

That program will destroy you. Way to overzealous. Just pick one exercise from push, pull, core, leg, and one corresponding FSP for each. That will be the max you can handle for 3 sets of 5 on a 4 day schedule, but many won't even be able to handle that.

Thanks for the feedback.

Erichlin, I anticipate a total workout time of 1 hour to 1.5 hours. I do intend to perform a warmup and prehab, particularly for my wrists. I was planning to stretch specifically on my off days. I like your recommendation to eliminate the second round of curls in B and move legs from A to B. I think that will help with the duration as well.

Trianglechoke7. Would you say that I am aiming to take on too much per session, or too many sessions for that sort of load? Given that I only have two push and two pull movements per workout, I anticipated cycling through the body parts circuit style. I want to push hard, but I don't want to overtrain. I'll give it a go but back off if I don't feel that I'm getting sufficient recovery.

Primate,

You should write down what your rest times will be, assume 30 seconds for each working set, then add 10 min for any error. Then also add time for stretching/prehab etc (don't know how long you will take)

That will be your workout time...i think over 1.5 is excessive. even 1.5 is excessive....my workout is 1.5 hours with all my prehab stuff...about 1hour 15 min without ..

Either, or.

If you kept the same workouts I would only do it twice per week. For example, workout A on tues and workout B on thurs and that's it. If you wanted to do 4 days per week, then do what I said before.

No way this will take 1 hour, and if it does then your rest periods are too short which means aren't working at a high enough intensity.

Look at how Coach Sommers WOD's look. He posts on the same days as you and the volume of his workouts are about 2/3 to 3/4 less than what you posted here.

Thanks guys.

Erichlins Formula applied to my schedule would give a total "at work" time of about 35 minutes including the additional 10 minutes. If I assume equal rest time, then this takes me to my allotted hour. So I guess this leads into Triangle's response. How much rest time should I need to ensure that I am working at maximal intensity?

You cannot assume equal work time. rest time is usually greater than work time often much greater.

my longest rest is 5 min....my medium rest is 2-3...then i have 90 second rest times, and 30 second rest times....all greater than 30 seconds for a working set....so you have to definitely recalculate.

You can take a look at my log for my rest times...

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3795

not sure if you want to use the same...but it felt good for me

Hmmm. Roger that. Back to the drawing board then!

Good luck, but don't spend too long. use killroy70's program or braindx article. I made mine from looking through the forums and my own workout experience. Feel free to use mine as well....i'll keep mine updated

OK, Day 1 down.

I just took 1 upper body pull movement, and one upper bod press movement, and eliminated the hanging leg lifts, but in all other respects, stuck to my Workout A schedule. It was a sufficient, and tough workout. I think the main thing is that I underestimated the intensity of the fundamental static positions, and just how much of workout they actually provide prior to the dynamic exercises

Thanks for the helpful feedback, I'll keep you posted on my progress

sounds great. let us know

An update after a week or so in. I have kept the schedule of 4 days per week, alternating Workout A and workout B, however my exercises are chosen from A or B rather than trying to do the full load (which as was rightly pointed out to me, would be excessive)

So my typical workout so far looks like:

1. Start with aerobic warmup and gentle dynamic stretches

2. Practice ALL FSP's from A or B to a minute, so A is Lsit, Handstand, Front Lever variant, B is straddle L, Planche, and back lever variant. e.g. if I am doing 3 sets x 20 seconds, I will do 1 set Lsit, then 1 set Handstand, then one set front lever, rinse and repeat.

3. Supersets of upper body pull and press, 3 sets of 5. Choosing one pull movement and one push movement from workout A or B depending on the day.

4. Supersets of Core and leg exercises, 3 sets of 5, followed by another round of core and leg, so if it is a workout A day, I might do 3 x 5 supersets of a lower back exercise and decksquats, followed by 3 x 5 supersets of v-ups and GHR's

5. Cooldown with stretches and wrist conditioning.

This routine takes about an hour, there is adequate rest to ensure that I can do no more than 5 reps with perfect form in each set. The superset structure saves a lot of time. I also stretch on the off days.

Concentrating on form rather than trying to race to the next progression is giving me a great sense of control. this workout is perfectly balanced to my current physical state, I feel fantastic. I am keeping a daily workout journal and will post updates of my progress.

Also, my workouts are more evenly spaced than initially proposed, so I now do:

Sunday: Workout A

Tuesday morning before work: Workout B

Thursday morning before work: Workout A

Friday night after work: Workout B

This gives me pretty close to 48 hours between workouts

Well, I'm a good six weeks or so in, although I did have a couple of lax weeks due to work / travel commitments.

Yesterday's workout:

Static Positions:

3 x 20 L-sits on P-Bars - last set my legs were dropping somewhat.

3 x 40 Wall handstands - stomach to wall. I really need to work on endurance in this!

3 x 20 tuck front levers on bar. - I can begin to move to an advanced tuck position for the first couple of sets now.

Bodyweight Movements:

3 x 5 Iron Cross pullouts with latex band assistance - First time trying this move in 15 years. I used a lot of assistance, but my form was horribly sloppy. My hand position felt wrong, I'm sure that I had my shoulders in the wrong position, I need to keep working this move with heavy band assistance to get the neural association for the movement before I work on strength in it.

3 x 5 Straight arm barbell raises to work planche and handstand press shoulder strength.

3 x 5 inverted situps knees over high bar

3 x 5 squat jumps onto box

PNF Stretching and wrist prehab exercises to finish.

In terms of progress, I feel a lot more solid in my movements and holds, even If I have not advanced the progressions particularly. It means that I have a better body awareness and understanding of where my main weaknesses lie so that I can now concentrate on these problem areas rather than just feeling sloppy overall.