GS&C II going back to 3 days from 4 days

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

I’ve run GS&C II 3 days and then 4 days one cycle each.

In the week 2 of the second run of the 4 day template, I realized my body is always sore rather than fresh. I remember you guys saying it should be fresh before workout session rather than beaten up.

  1. In this situation, would it be better going back to the 3 day template?

I run for cardio with Polar HR band(usually ~130 bpm). Weight selection sometimes goes over 0.5~1 RPE but never over RPE 2.

  1. Is doing cardio different days from lifting days better? In the same HR I can run faster if it’s no lifting day. After lifting especially leg day, my HR gets already high and just normal speed walking gets me to the zone 2(~130 BPM). I’m doing lifting and cardio the same day now.

Thanks in advance!

2

CK,

Thanks for the post and for giving me some feedback on the GSC II template. I think that you should feel pretty fresh most of the time in training, though planned overreaching in various phases would be different. In this specific context, I do favor going back to the 3x/wk template. I think the slightly lower lifting volume and extra rest days may be more compatible with your current life stress outside of the gym. It’s also possible that you’d acclimate to the current 4x/wk version, especially since you’ve run it before. Still, I don’t see a strong reason to stay with the 4x/wk template for much longer right now. I’d wrap up week 2 and then go to week 3 of the 3x/wk template.

I do not think that doing conditioning on different days than you lift weights increases fitness adaptations from conditioning or resistance training. However, I do think your performance is likely to be higher and less variable for conditioning done fresh. You might experiment with doing a block where conditioning is separate from lifting by either a few hours or a day, if your schedule allows.

-Jordan