Ok, I think this is the best place for this question. Send me somewhere else if I'm wrong! I bought Patrick's e-book and like I said in my intro, I love it! I am sold and finally free of bp splits. I am doing the upper/lower 4 day split and doing pretty much what is in the book at the moment. I think I changed 1 or 2 exercises, but basically the same thing.
Cardio: Cardio is in the book as everyday but Sunday. I am trying to make my weight days Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Sat. Sat is an easy day to get my cardio in after weights. However, on Mon I like to take a step class which is about a total of 40 minutes of cardio and Wednesday I am most likely joining a running group, which will be a variable amount of cardio, maybe 30-45 minutes. Is it ok to look at the cardio as total minutes per week rather than a little everyday and "miss" cardio one day? Meaning look at Mon's step class as 2 days of cardio and not cardio on Tues and same for Wed. Hope that's clear.
Thanks so much for checking out the book. The template in the book is nothing more than an example. It isn't that you have to take sunday off or do the cardio set up as in the book. You can alter it to whatever fits your needs. The idea of the book is to teach you to be flexible with your own training program. If you want to take a class after your lifting instead of doing the intervals, then do that instead. Like I said, this is more about you being flexible with your own program.
Core work: I know Patrick isn't a fan of ab work, but the class on Mon includes ab work. Is it ok to replace core work that day with this ab work? I would be doing upper body weights, then step class, then abs at the end of the class lead by the instructor. Sometimes she does core work, like planks, but mostly it's crunches for about 7-10 minutes (just a guess, not a definite time frame).
I am not a fan of flexion based abdominal training. If you take the class and they are part of the class, then I guess that is the nature of the beast. I wouldn't replace the core work in the training part of the program with what takes place in the class, because aside from training stability, the core work in the program is sort of like the last part of the warm up before lifting, to help you acquire some awareness before hitting the weights.
Load: Should I be attempting to increase my weight load each set I do? When I worked bp splits w/my former workout partner, she was telling me to increase my weights each set I did, so I would do 4 sets of overhand grip pulldowns and increase the weight each set, for 10 reps each (bench press was the only exercise we would cut down on the number of reps). I am working out on my own, so w/o a spotter, I have to be very careful how heavy I go and for how many reps. I plan to try to increase a little each week, as much as possible, but also know that I am dieting at the same time.
That is going to be up to you. Some people may choose to increase load on each set. If you are doing that, start low and add a little each set and make the last set the top end set where you are trying to set a PR (IE 65/1x8 reps, 85/1x8 reps, 115/1x8 reps (PR)). Other times you may choose to work on keeping the weight the same for all three working sets and improving on the overall work load from week to week (IE, week1: 100/3 sets x 6 reps, week2: 100/3sets x 7 reps, week3: 100/3sets x 8 reps).
If you are training without a spotter, you may want to go with option number two and always try and leave a rep or two in the tank (just as I explain in the book).
Thanks so much for your time!
No problem.
Patrick
