Back in the saddle

[Baddecisions]

I'd gained a lot of weight and strength dtfp. Had to take 8 weeks off to go to a school. There was a lot of conditioning, running, body weight nonsense and other tomfoolery. I didn't have access to barbells, or a real caloric surplus. Necessary evil for advancing in my profession. The good news is, now that I'm on the team I'm given 1.5 to 2 hours to train on my own every day on company time. I'm aware this sounds like the opposite of a problem. If it was a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday I would train. Any other day I would just look like I did something and grab a big lunch. Well, they're telling me they don't care about the program, I need to exercise during this period. They sign the paycheck, so I'm not saying no. My question is, what can I do on my program's off days that wouldn't be detrimental? We do one or two group runs a week, and I'm already fast, so I don't want to run any more than I have to. I lost enough strength and mass over 2 months, I'm back on linear progression and do not want to tax my ability to recover. Chins and pushups, plyononsence, grip training, yoga, I'm open to any suggestion.

[Tom Campitelli]

I don't know if I understand the question here. How much other exercise do you have to do? How often can you lift?

[Baddecisions]

I work a rotating shift of 12s. But always lift Monday Wednesday and Friday, either at work or home. Depending on the week, I'll have to fill 1-3 days with exercise outside of the program to appease the powers that be.

[Tom Campitelli]

Given that you can train MWF, you are in good shape. The more you can standardize your additional exercise requirements outside of that, the better off you are, too. If you have to do a lot of running on Wednesdays, well, that is probably a good day to go easier. In the absence of that setup, you are going to have to go by feel. If you are exhausted, you may need to dial something back. Stay with a novice progression until is becomes infeasible. The TM is not a good choice, at least not on a three-day workout schedule. A heavy-light-medium setup would probably do the trick nicely, with weekly progress. If you have the time and ability to recover, consider a four-day split, too.

[Baddecisions]

You don't think I could make the Texas method work if my other two days a week consisted of an hour of something super low impact?

[Tom Campitelli]

You don't think I could make the Texas method work if my other two days a week consisted of an hour of something super low impact?

In that case you probably could.

[Baddecisions]

Thanks for your help. Guess I'll just work on flexibility those days for the hell of it.

[Tom Campitelli]

I wish you luck on your quest to become an extensible feline.

[Nick Delgadillo]

Run your LP on the days you lift like you're already doing and then on your other days, do some chin-ups and roll around on the floor with a foam roller or some shit. Make it look like you're working hard if you need to. When it's time, change over to a 4 day split and then you'll only have to pretend once a week or so.

[John Weaver]

Seems like one of the few situations some 'mobility work' might be appropriate.