TacticalBarbell.com

i just finished my second week of basebuilding. My 3x30 workout took almost an hour. My cluster is bodyweight squats, push-ups, Single Leg Romanian Deadlifts, inverted rows and supermans. I'm obviously out of shape, especially with SE, but I'm not sure if I should continue to truck through, or switch to tango circuits. Squats, SLDLs and supermans are laregeky unbroken, but the push-ups and rows took a while. I should note that I'm not too sore the next day though. I don't want to be stupid, but I don't want to wimp out either.

What would you do?

Josh wrote:i just finished my second week of basebuilding. My 3x30 workout took almost an hour. My cluster is bodyweight squats, push-ups, Single Leg Romanian Deadlifts, inverted rows and supermans. I'm obviously out of shape, especially with SE, but I'm not sure if I should continue to truck through, or switch to tango circuits. Squats, SLDLs and supermans are laregeky unbroken, but the push-ups and rows took a while. I should note that I'm not too sore the next day though. I don't want to be stupid, but I don't want to wimp out either.

What would you do?

Training for around an hour give or take is pretty conventional. There's no issue here. Back when I used to use Texas Method my workouts would run close to two hours...now that's excessive. Even then, it depends on the domain and workout. Like Rucking for 2-4 hours isn't excessive, but running for that length of time could be.

How long are your rest periods?

I've definitely done some long workouts, but heavy volume lifting days are mostly me waiting to recover, then 5 reps. Or long LSS or backpacking trips.

My 3x30 workout was 52:46. I took pretty much the maximum allowed according to the book - 2 minutes between exercises and 2 minutes between sets. So 25-30 minutes of the 52 were rest. The squats were done in a minute, the rest being more like 1:45-2:15. I'm not recovering much during those 2 minutes - I assume that this may change as basebuilding progressess. I don't mind doing the work, I'm just wondering about the 3x50 workouts which will probably take closer to 2 hours, especially considering I get about 15 rows before I start rest pausing.

My question is: Does it matter if I need to take 2 hours to bang out a 3x40 or 3x50 session?

It's an "endurance" category workout, so I see it as a benefit going long duration.
It's muscular-endurance after all. If you do run into issues you could always switch to Alpha too.

I would not switch to Tango. IMO it's too easy to quit too early with T. With Alpha or Bravo you're forced to become better and work past your limits, because it assigns you a set number of reps. I believe Tango is best utilized after Base, like during Bangkok or one-off SE workouts.

I thought the idea of SE is do them as quick as possible. I did my 3x30 in less than 25 minutes the other day

cws1992 wrote:I thought the idea of SE is do them as quick as possible. I did my 3x30 in less than 25 minutes the other day

It is. But some people aren't there yet with the SE. It can be challenging for those coming from a strength-only background.

StayGrey wrote:

cws1992 wrote:I thought the idea of SE is do them as quick as possible. I did my 3x30 in less than 25 minutes the other day

It is. But some people aren't there yet with the SE. It can be challenging for those coming from a strength-only background.

Okay just making sure I'm doing it correctly, thanks

Unfortunately, that IS the fastest I could do it. I just pulled the plug in the middle of my 3x40 workout, due to dizziness. I just don't have the conditioning. Instead of doing the Tango or Alpha basebuilding, I'm going to keep pushing what I can do with the program as is. I'll save the Alpha and Tango stuff for continuation.

Isn't Alpha easier than the SE Clusters programmed by Base Building? I don't have access to the book right now but I'll check that later.

How long have your runs taken? And have you had to stop and walk? Are you following the "be able to hold a conversation when you run" rule?

How much weight are you using for any weighted movements are you using?

What's your current 1RM in Squat, Bench, Dead and Overhead?