Time to Ditch Foundations?

This morning in my inbox is an ad for GB Unlimited. The tagline is, "It's Time — Ditch Your Old Workout". Would that include Foundations? It's a serious question. Like all of us longer-term GST users, I've been seeing GB Unlimited promotional material for some time now. I haven't jumped in yet for two reasons:

1. I've paid in advance for all GST Foundations and Stretching courses, plus HS 1 & 2; that is a decent upfront cash outlay;
2. Two, while I see the variety of Unlimited courses, the descriptions of each aren't quite detailed enough to lead me understand how they might benefit me for an additional $30US per month.

From a business perspective I get GB Unlimited. If I were a new customer, without a doubt that would be my choice. It's a tougher decision for an existing customer already invested in the standard GST courses.

So back to my question...would ditching Foundations for GB Unlimited be the thing to do? Would the additional modules and varied training provide the stimulus to bust through sticking points like being on RC2 and HBP2 for nearly two years, despite being in Foundations 2 and 3 in several of the other workouts?

I am a loyal GST customer who has benefited tremendously from the training. This will be my long-term, go-to workout. I just don't think I have enough of a sense of Unlimited to know if it's worth the dive.

Interested to hear the perspective of both GB coaches and some of the GB old-timers who have converted to Unlimited.

That is a great question.  I've integrated several of the mobility/stretching videos into my workouts.  The "weighted mobility" and "lower body flexibility" ones have become favorites. I'm also doing one of the handstand and the 25 minute core video.  However, I'm still doing Foundations and the 3 longer stretching videos.  One of my main concerns with the GNB Unlimited is that it is like being at a really great buffet...too many great choices and I don't want to get fat.

Short answer: yes.

I’m four years in and have found that the Foundations and stretching isn’t enough anymore. Handstand and movement workouts are excellent and there are a plethora of other mobimity and workout videos from a variety of coaches that will quite honestly kick your ass or give you a fresh way to address issues. 

Pay the $240 up front and that cuts the average to $20 a month. The longer the are with GB the better your prior investment will average for you. As a former CrossFit box owner who is still involved in the gyms business development, I completely see why the pricing structure has changed over the past few years.

You could go to a competitor and pay $1,100 up front for allll they have to offer but I don’t think you’ll find the athletic focus to be the same. Not knocking it: I know some of them well, but for me the GB system is a proven method and if it’s something you’re gonna to be a part of for years to come, it’s still cheap as dirt.

Bill:

I've done almost exactly the same cash outlay as you: Foundations 1, 3 stretch courses, and HS1.  You ask a great question;  for me, the answer was "yes, it is worth it".  I signed up for Unlimited for a couple reasons, and haven't regretted that decision.

1. I needed the various Restore stretching series (there are 7 of them, each lasting between 5 and 10 minutes) to do mobility work more often in very targeted areas. After almost 5 years of foundations, I'm not so concrete-y anymore, but still not a yoga master.

2. They keep adding lots of new, varied programming for almost every possible need.  Maybe one of the coaches can put a list in this thread of all the stuff, unless that list is available somewhere publicly on the site.  There's stuff in there for long warmups, short warmups, very targeted stretching, conditioning work,  core work,  etc.  PLUS, you get all of the foundations 1-4 and those forums (though your original post suggests that you already had Foundations 2-4, so maybe not as useful to you)

3. There's a bunch of stuff in there that I can do with athletes I coach (basketball & track), especially the warmup stuff and Restore stretching stuff.  I recognize that's a highly personal factor that might apply to very few others.

It was clear to me that GB's business model needed to change, because, if they are going to be in business for a long time, they can't have me (relatively early adopter) just hanging around, year after year, never paying another dime.  And I want GB to stay in business.  They needed to find a way to transition nearly every new customer to an on-going subscription model.  So it might not be in my personal best financial interest to have them move to this model, I welcome all the new programming that has come with it.  

Craig,

Great points. I agree with all of them. The constant additions is excellent. I didn’t realize they were doing it at first and honestly many of them are challenging me because of the programming: different but stuff I’m familiar with..?

Leon

I've been thinking of the same questions myself. My current answer is that I'll probably transition into the unlimited program at some point in the future, but not yet. My reasoning:

1. @Craig Copeland's great point about GB needing a sustainable business model and my wish to see it stick around, understanding I'll need to chip in myself.

2. Given the content I already got (and a personal need to work on improving old injuries, which I'm doing with a PT), my capacity is currently maxed out. I expect that to change over time, as I'll probably become less challenged by the existing GB content and hope to require less work on my PT routine. If anyone has suggestions on how to identify the ideal point to transition, those would be appreciated.

3. I'm mostly concerned about a point resembling what @Christopher Haddock mentioned - unlimited seems to have a ton of variety, but very little structure. Unlike Foundation, where programming is super clear and progress measurable, it's not clear to me how this happens with unlimited. I've seen questions on this topic in the past (on the forums) which didn't seem to receive a response that was satisfactory (from my perspective) - unlimited seems to be shifting the responsibility for figuring that part out to the user. Personally, I don't have the needed expertise, and one of the most important features of a program for me are the guidance it provides in that regard. Would appreciate any thoughts on this topic from those more experienced with unlimited.

I tend to think of it this way. Foundations is my core work and the extras from GB unlimited are my supplemental work. For example at the moment I am adding legs/core XX minute workout post the respective foundations workout. 

This may change when my focus changes or different courses are available but foundations will remain consistent. 

I have got all the legacy courses (except for HS3), and recently trialled unlimited. Differently from the other answers, for the time being mine would be no.

The restore courses are nice, but I do not see the need of almost anything else. Generic warm-up sequences or core workouts you can easily find around and/or design by yourself. Differently from the other GB courses, they do not have all the added values of careful progression towards more and more technical elements. Weighted mobility and similar stuff are nice, but you could easily put such a sequence together by selecting some of Foundation iMs - I don't think there is much new if anything. Some of the available sequences seem to be part of the Foundation 1 follow alongs abridged and sticked together (I may be wrong on this one as I have not checked carefully); other are essentially the online classes which are available with the legacy courses. 

So, I understand the value of unlimited for a new user, but if you have most of the courses I would say there is yet very little reason to go unlimited.

I agree with Guido. Don t get distracted, train Foundation, Handstand and Strecht series.

Same for me: i have almost all the courses and still plenty (!) to do! 

But for anyone new to GST i would recommend Unlimited, until you know if this kind of training is what you will stick to...

For me its a no as well for the time being, unless they move form check to unlimited only, which I really hope they dont!

6 hours ago, Felipe Garcia Rosa said:

For me its a no as well for the time being, unless they move form check to unlimited only, which I really hope they dont!

They can t do that. You have life time acces to the courses and forums you purchased.

Ok, that s the way that I see it... GB is a company, more or less new, that it s being changing since its beggining. They started with a few courses and started adding more and more. They aso added explanatory videos, they changed the web format. I guess Coach was always adapting to the needs of the people and the company. For example, when he realized Strecht Series where vey needed in order to progress through Foundation or when it was necessary to change the order of the progression in Foundations. I m not an expert of the company history, I just wanted to make the point that it s being changing continuosly.

So this last change in the subscription model, is probably for economical reasons. Everybody can understand a company needs to keep growing, if not they won t be able to offer their services (coaches, technical, webpage...). Also when they had a few courses available wasn t the time to implement an Unlimited subscription but now that they do have quite a few it makes sense for someone who doesn t want to spend a lot of money at once or want to see if he/she likes this kind of training. This way GB can keep growing and rolling: more people accessing because of the cheap price and more people paying every month, instead of just once in a lifetime.

However, the new realeases are a different story. GB Unlimited doesn t mean access to the new courses, means access to all the courses, but, of course, these new courses are only available through GB Unlimited and for the future all the new releases will only be via Unlimited. The new courses are what they are, they are not a core component of GST and they never meant to be (maybe they should clarify that), they are a publicity to launch Unlimited. There are few new things on them that you cant take from Foundation or variations or scaling options of the strecht series. I m not saying they don t have its place, but for someone who has been training some years is probably unnecesary, because one should be able to make his own warm up, own variations, scaling options, conditioning program, etc. So, understand me here, is very nice that they are summing up all this togheter for us, BUT if you already have the legacy courses you are going to find very little for the extra money AND if you are new and go with Unlimited you may get distracted with so many courses available and forget to traing the core components of GST.

I bought all the legacy courses. I was missing a couple of courses and I purchased them on purpose when Unlimited come, because I tried the 7 day free trial and didn t like it, so after spending so much money and I don t want and will never want to switch to Unlimited. The only thing that makes me sad is that I won t be able to train the real courses of the GB curriculum that are supposed to be release when the people catches up with his training and there are enough of them who can train it. You can find this roadmap in this Coach post:

Strenght to you all!

Antonio.

I also purchased the legacy courses and still use all of them but Movement.  I'll probably use Movement in the future but my workout space at home is limited and that became a barrier to some of the elements. Here is how I've integrated in the Unlimited courses.  Coach may think it is overkill...so I welcome any comments. Note that (UL) is one of the GNB Unlimited videos

Monday: 7-Minute Warm Up (UL), Upper Body Foundations, Lower Body Foundations (I also do yoga)

Tuesday: Core Foundations, Handstand Foundations, Weighted Mobility (UL) (I also do something aerobic)

Wednesday: Middle Split

Thursday: Core Foundations, Handstand Foundations, Single Bar Shoulder Mobility (UL) (I also do something aerobic)

Friday: 7-Minute Warm Up (UL), Upper Body Foundations, Lower Body Foundations, 30-Minute Lower Body Flexibility (UL)

Saturday: 25-Minute Core Workout (UL), 20-Minute Handstands (UL) (I also do a long ruck/run)

Sunday: Bridge Stretch Series, Front Stretch Series

Periodically I will also work in one of the other UL videos.  I really like the Stall Bar Stretch.

Thoughts?

I own all 4 foundations, all 3 stretches, 2 handstands, and 1 movement... I have not "trialed" nor purchased the Unlimited, and for now, most probably won't, because I have full hands with making my handstands awesome, and just with all the foundation training...  I like the structure of the Foundation/Handstand courses. 

Has anyone tried the new parallettes course? I just saw it today, not sure when it was released. I am in the same boat as you guys. Bought most of the courses but parallettes is the one that excites me the most. Is this a follow along video like stretch series or progression based interface like the foundation series?

9 hours ago, Affan Osman said:

Has anyone tried the new parallettes course? I just saw it today, not sure when it was released. I am in the same boat as you guys. Bought most of the courses but parallettes is the one that excites me the most. Is this a follow along video like stretch series or progression based interface like the foundation series?

Hi @Affan Osman we received a lot of feedback from students on wanting to learn how to incorporate parallettes into their workouts. The first class is a workout that @Allan Bower put together with parallettes and a furniture slider. @Jeffrey Bittner leads the second class which goes into using parallettes during stretching. If these are a tool that interests a lot of students, we can expand these further. There's so much parallettes work that can be done in compliment with Foundation and Handstand.

Just restarted my subscription with gymnastic bodies with the intention of sorting out old injuries and hopefully adding a bit of muscle along the way. It’s a bit confusing with the new courses in terms of where to put what in my schedule. I eventually want to bust out the rings but that said I’ve tried the paralletes one and two and really enjoyed them! Also has coach Sommer been on anymore podcasts of late? I’ve listened to the Tim Ferris ones to death

1 minute ago, William ball said:

Just restarted my subscription with gymnastic bodies with the intention of sorting out old injuries and hopefully adding a bit of muscle along the way. It’s a bit confusing with the new courses in terms of where to put what in my schedule. I eventually want to bust out the rings but that said I’ve tried the paralletes one and two and really enjoyed them! Also has coach Sommer been on anymore podcasts of late? I’ve listened to the Tim Ferris ones to death

@William ball if you drop support a note they can help you get going with a schedule that fits your training needs.

Cheers Corey I will do!