Workout Structure?

[MonkeysUncle]

Hey everybody, I have a few questions, but first I'll cover what I have available and what my goals are. I have:

Flowfit® 1
Ageless Mobility®
Intu-Flow®
Single 35 lb. kettlebell (Though for a while I'd like to simply use the CST materials as I don't feel physically ready for the kettlebell yet, I've used it before and ended up getting stronger, bigger, and hurt)
Pull-up/dip station

I am going to be purchasing soon:
RESET
Forward Pressure

My main goals for the next month or two:

Increasing strength in the upper body, as I've always felt this was a weak link for me and wish to start boxing soon. (I know conditioning is also very important, but would like to improve my strength first)

From a physique standpoint I am fine with how "big" my muscles are, but would like to become more defined and toned. A big part of this is diet and I am always working to improve how I eat, but from an exercise standpoint I still am not sure how to aim CST materials to improve definition as opposed to other attributes.

My main question is how to integrate what resources I have. I was thinking along the lines of a 4x7 as follows:

No Intensity: Intu-Flow®
Low Intensity: Ageless Mobility®
Medium Intensity: Flowfit® 1
High Intensity: Forward Pressure

I would do Intu-Flow® and RESET every day in addition to the 4x7.

Reader's Digest version:
I need help creating a program that improves upper body strength and muscular definition using Intu-Flow®, Ageless Mobility®, Flowfit® 1, Forward Pressure, and RESET.

[Joseph David]

No Intensity: Intu-Flow®
Low Intensity: Ageless Mobility®®
Medium Intensity: Flowfit®® 1
High Intensity: Forward Pressure

I would do Intu-Flow® and RESET every day in addition to the 4x7.


Brad,
This would be a solid body wieght conditioning program. I would just do FlowFit for your first 7 cycles. Then just forward pressure for the next 7. Use FlowFit as a warm up for forward pressure 3 rounds slow and smooth. After your solid with both programs, then try combining them.

I look forward to reading your training blog :)

[MonkeysUncle]

Joseph- thanks for the great reply. Solid advice, though it brings a few more questions to mind.

How do you go about increasing numbers in the 4x7 for both Flowfit®® and Forward Pressure? I remember reading on the site somewhere that your moderate day should be the same number of reps as your last high intensity day, and that your high intensity should be pretty much all-out.

Where this confuses me is time. If I did say 10 repetitions of the level 2 flow from Flowfit® in 14 minutes (don't know if this is accurate, but for the sake of illustration) on my last high intensity day, should I try to increase to 11 repetitions in the same amount of time, or 12 repetitions in 16 minutes, or something different? I'm just not quite sure how many repetitions to aim for in what amount of time, and then whether I should increase the repetitions per that amount of time, or the total amount of time. Sorry that sentence was kind of a mind-bender, haha.

I'm assuming once I'm doing 18 repetitions or more in 18 minutes and meeting all the personal scale requirements (don't remember the official name, but the pain, level of performance, and effort scales) is when I move up to the next level flow? Or should I simply move up one level in certain exercises as I develop more in those areas?

These questions apply both to the Flowfit® and Forward Pressure cycles, but I won't have Forward Pressure for a week or so yet, so I use Flowfit® only for the sake of illustration.

I apologize for these questions being somewhat muddled, and if there's anything I can clarify let me know. Again, thanks for the help!

[shadow]

I feel that there are so many ways you could work this and it's up to you to find out what works best for you.


One idea, which is the way I have used and will use again, is to just concentrate on the time regardless of reps.

i.e.
Cycle 1
Moderate = 14 minutes
High = 15 minutes

Cycle 2
Moderate = 15 minutes
High = 16 minutes

.......

Or if you were ready for it, and this is how I plan to approach Flowfit® next would be:

Cycle 1
Moderate = 15 minutes Level II
High = 15 minutes Level III

Cycle 2
Moderate = 16 minutes Level II
High = 16 minutes Level III

up to 18 minutes then drop back down to:

Cycle 5:
Moderate = 15 minutes Level IV
High = 16 minutes Level IV

.......

Hope that helps give some idea about the flexibility available even within such a seemingly simple program.

:)

As for moving up in level, exercises, etc... it all comes back to intuitive training (RPE, RPT, RPD) if you follow that you will know the answer to your questions both micro (exercise level) and macro (flow level) within FlowFit.

[Joseph David]

Brad,
There are a couple of steps to take to get the most out of a bodyweight conditioning program. The first is skills acquisition. You must learn the nuances of the skills so you can properly target attributes you wish to train. As technique decreases, undesirable training effect increases. Next is grooving a skill. This refines the nuances of the skill so that as exertion increases, your technique remains stable.
How this might look in a 4x7 program: The first cycle would be skills acquisition. Medium day would be reviewing the material and taking the movements for a test run, assessing if there are impediments to clear through joint mobility. The High day would be grooving the skill. Do short rounds of each skill with lots of rest, maybe 3 rounds of five reps. Once you complete skills acquisition you’re ready to plug those skills in a second cycle. Say you can do 5 rounds in fifteen minutes keeping your RPT above 8 and your RPD below 3, that would be your Medium day. Your high day you would add one round, for 6 rounds. Then the next medium day would be 6 rounds and the high day would be 7. You plug the number of the previous High into the next Medium to incrementally increase density.
There are other toggles you can tweak along the way, such as compression, rest time between rounds, intensity, sophistication level, and duration, length of the training session. In the beginning keep it real simple, only toggle one variable at a time, in this case it would be density, the amount of work produced in a given time period. Be sure to follow the program out of the box before you start to play with any variables.
Looking forward to reading about your results