3-day cycles?

[JLMA]

I follow the "4-day cycles" version of the TACFIT programs.

During the NO and LOW days my training routine is ONLY what's prescribed for those days: NO and LOW exercises, respectively.

It feels (to me) as if doing ONLY around 15-20 min of NO exercises on NO days, and about 15-20 min of LOW exercises on LOW days is enough for those days.

I am coming up with these potential ways to approach this:

(1) longer NO and LOW sessions on the NO and LOW days, respectively

(2) switching to 3-day cycles, that could go like this:
DAY 1, NO-LOW day: combining in one day the exercises from BOTH the NO & LOW days
DAY 2, MOD day: as prescribed
DAY 3, HIGH day: as prescribed

What do y'all think about this?
Is the 3-day cycle grounds for TACFIT excommunication?

JLMA

[sakinney]

There's a saying in regard to the 4x7 structure, "you can add more recovery, but you can't add more work." There, now the proverb is out of the way.

People drawn to CST and TacFit also have a lot of personal drive, and a deep desire to keep moving forward. A prescribed "no intensity" can make them really nuts. So they add work or intensity of various kinds or skip the "no" day altogether, and they get away with it for a little while. And then, they tweak a shoulder, or a knee or their lower back, or..... pick your weak spot.

I don't do the "No" intensity day "as written". Over the course of doing TacFit Commando, some ROPE and some TF KB; I accumulated all the mobility exercises together, and hung them off of Intu-Flow®. So, 40 seconds or so for each movement; starting with Intu-Flow®, then adding the mobility exercises for each body part as I get to it. Sometimes I'll add some stick mobility drills, or some tactical folder draws. But I draw the line when it starts to turn into work. I guess I'm still spending 30 - 40 minutes on a 'full' day. When pressed for time or space, I do Intu-Flow® with 1 or 2 add-ins.

The "Low" intensity day runs along the same line. Fair warning; I've been working on Prasara Primer for a while, so even if I was going to do TacFit compensations 'as written', there would still be 12 minutes of some flow or other in it. That said, I've accumulated compensatory poses from all the programs, and added some that I need to do, into a larger set of poses. "Low" intensity day is where I have the most trouble with managing intensity. It's easy to push a little harder, do some extra poses, and experiment with things.

The bottom line is; faced with the same dilemma you face; I added more mobility to the "No" day and more yoga to the "Low" day, and kept the four day cycle.

Just my US$.02.

[hermanchauw]

Ditto on the injury part.

If you have done the High Day as prescribed, the No should follow naturally. Prasara is too strenous for the day after High. I've tried it just demoing poses/transitions in class and it doesn't feel right. Now i schedule my No Day on my non-working days.

If you want to do a multiple-of-three-day cycle, you could try no-low-low-mod-low-high.

Or maybe do two sessions (AM mod+ PM high) on day 3: no-low-(mod+high).

Just don't compress the recovery days.

[Continuity]

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but would somebody explain the 4/7 cycle in relation to the Fibonacci more in depth? Much appreciated.

[ghostfist]

agreed with the above..
especially after a really good high day - the 'no' day is both welcome and necessary. The washing out of joints and grooving of mobility is key to recovery. I normally add in a full Intu-Flow® routine then proceed with the prescribed drills for which ever program Im working.

I have also found then that the low day is not as easy as it sounds - to do the compensations fully and deeply leaves me both drenched in sweat and fully worked out - in that 'low intensity ' capacity. Once again add in more prasara here if you feel you can - but only as a way to deepen and open further your postures/structures. Be carefull not to add in too much work.

[hermanchauw]

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but would somebody explain the 4/7 cycle in relation to the Fibonacci more in depth? Much appreciated.

The Intensities of the subsequent days are (roughly) the addition of the previous two days.

[Coach Clavijo]

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but would somebody explain the 4/7 cycle in relation to the Fibonacci more in depth? Much appreciated.

If you do a Google Image search for "Elliott Wave", you will see representations that might make it all easier to understand. The wave is related to the Fibonacci sequence, and 4x7 is related to the wave. In 4x7 we progress up the wave and then drop back down. Then we do it again. But the second time around, we are starting "higher" than we did before. Each ride up the wave takes us higher, as part of a larger wave. The mini 4 day cycles are a pattern within the pattern.

Does that make sense? For more in-depth info on how the Fibonacci Sequence and Elliott Wave relate to physical performance, you might pick up the book Consistent Winning - by Ronald D. Sandler, and Dennis D. Lobstein.