Hey guys, I am starting university but I am not joining the track team this year so I will be training on my own. The problem is I am in engineering which is a pretty busy undergrad study and I am pressed for time. I will most likely need to use an AM-PM split to complete my workouts on at least 1 of my 3 high intensity days. My off days/tempo days will be fine.
I will most likely do sprints in the AM at around 10:30-12:00 and lift from around 4:30PM.
I am just wondering if any of you guys had any experience with AM and PM split and whether it is as effective as doing everything together.
I’ve been doing this kind of split for my GPP and it seems to be working great. I think it’s ideal really, perhaps just keep in mind that since you will be feeling fresher for weights that it will be easier to go harder on the weights and create an overall higher CNS load for the day.
I use to train at 5:30am (abs), than 7am (weights) = total 90 minutes and at night train for another 90 minutes after work. Not ideal, but that was as good as I could do.
Yea I can see that. I am also on my GPP right now but I am a bit out of shape at the moment since I haven’t trained in a while. Do you still feel residue fatigue after the speed work and before weights?
wow man when do you get up? I can never do weights that early inthe morning.
I feel great between speed and weights and only need a light warmup to get ready for the weights. The next day is when I’m feelin like I did something, with 72 hours between the intense workouts though I’m always feeling fresh for the second day. I’ve been doing 240-450m hill work and 2-3 lower body weightlifts supplemented with explosive medball/plyos and core work. Weights workouts last about an hour, hills workouts last 20-40 minutes (not including warmup). Keep the workouts short and sweet and you should have no problems with one workout taking away from the other.
You could even do weights in the AM and then speed work in the PM. This worked well for an athlete on this forum. He would do some lower volumes of lifting in the AM, and that would potentiate him for the PM workout which involved sprints, etc. He would also finish up with weights in the PM.
72 Hours? If I am doing 3 Intense workouts a week, wouldn’t I only be able to get at most 48 hours b/w them?
But yea, my GPP right now looks similar to yours, I have around 300m of hill work and incomplete recovery, which last about 25 minutes not including warm-ups and then full body 5x5 type of weight work after for 40-50minutes. I will have to try it whether it works or not for me.
Yea I have read that thread before I think. I believe Charlie said that you wouldn’t be able to know how hard to go in weights. He said this:
Oh yea it slipped my mind that you were doing 3 intense workouts. 2 intense days might be something to think about though, as it sounds like your schooling will be plenty stressful.
Yeah that is definitely another option I will look into. The way I have set up right now is that my first day of my “training” week will occur on Wednesday because I have a 3 hour break in the middle of the day, so I can probably sprint then and then lift after class. My second high intensity day is on Friday and then third on Sunday. So I think I have planned my schedule pretty well around school, but yea, it’s really gonna depend on how much work I get.
Wednesday is probably the only day I will try the AM-PM since I don’t have to worry about studying on Friday and Sundays. I will give it a go now and see everything comes together.
Also I am thinking of getting some Scivation Xtend to help with recovery.