(minimalist) training frequency for each workout (barbell weights + stretching)

[simon-yawarakaimon]

Hi,

First post so a little background: I'll be 50 later this year so I've committed to improving my flexibilty as well as developing strength. My hips are good because I used to do martial arts and I maintained my habit of stretching (esp cossack squat), tho my hamstrings are pretty tight and so is my lower back, which is stiff , aches sometimes, and this year has started cramping up when I'm surfing - fixing this is my primary short-term goal.

I surf 2-3 times a month (more if I can...) and I ride a bicycle to work (about 100~150km a week, so quite a lot, tho mostly at a fairly relaxed pace).

Currently I have 4 basic workouts:

A) pike
B ) shoulders
C) squat
D) box splits

where each one is basically:

1) some massage,
2) a dynamic movement,
3) a strength barbell exercise,
4) an isometric hold
5) stretching (contract-relax stretchtherapy).

It usually takes 1.5 to 2 hours, which is quite long but it's after my workday and I enjoy it so I'm not too worried about time. I cycle home and to work the next day so I'm not totally exhausting myself or anything.

For a couple of months I tried doing them Mon-Tue-Wed-Thurs but it's a bit much, so I'm going to try working out just twice a week (Mon and Thurs) so covering all 4 workouts/bodyparts in a two week period.
 
The thing I'm mainly concerned about is that there's a two-week gap between each specific workout (e.g. between each squat workout) which is definitely longer than conventional wisdom (1-2x a week). Each workout is pretty thorough tho, so a week's rest is probably good...but two weeks??
That said,  the painscience.com guy (who seems to know his stuff, I use his massage recommendations) says even 3 weeks is probably fine: https://www.painscience.com/articles/strength-training-frequency.php

If two weeks turns out to be too long my options are:
A) reduce the number of workouts - I could cut the sidesplits workout as it's far from essential to my current goals, tho I quite enjoy it.
B ) cut the shoulders workout and instead add some pullups (and lat stretches) to pike day and some dips/bench (and chest stretches) to squat day.

One final thing before I get to the workouts: I bought the master's course recently, but so far have only gone through the Squat lessons - you can see I've integrated some of the stretches into Workout A. Hopefully I'll get to the other lessons sometime soon.... I also do a full body 20 minute limbering session most days (5 out of 7?)  

Does anyone have any advice or comments? It's probably mostly a case of "do it and see how it goes" but if anyone has any thoughts I'd welcome the input.

Thanks!

Appendix:
My (current) workouts:

Workout A: squat: quads and hip flexors
massage - foam rolling (quads and hip adductors)
100m sprints (x5-6, at about 80% intensity - I find this a good dynamic stretch for my hip flexors!)
Barbell Squats (5-10 reps x 2-10 sets)
boxing the compass CR x 2-3 sets
inside squat, seated figure 8, baby flop, and asian squat (lower back)  - all CR x 2-3 sets

Workout B: shoulders
massage - pecs, lats, delts, biceps and triceps
muscle-ups - currently about 30 singles
rubber band stretch
butchers block

Workout C : pike
massage (back and hamstrings)
barbell deadlift
isometric pike (the bottom position of a jefferson curl) x 2mins x 5 sets
wall pike CR x 3 sets
relaxed lunge stretches CR x 3 sets
asian squat to stretch my lower back x 3 sets

Workout D : sidesplit
massage (adductors)
barbell cossack squat 20 reps x 3 sets
isometric side split holds 1min x 5 sets
side splits (supported on arms) down to pike (bum on floor) CR x 5 sets

[Kit_L]

@simon-yawarakaimon: When I was in my powerlifting phase, and made the best-ever gains over eight weeks, the workouts were Sunday only, for 2–3 hours, and covered all three lifts. I had a coach, and I was working all lifts as hard as I could. Many experts told me I was not working out enough to make progress. I was stronger every workout, and at the end of that period entered a local (Sydney University) meet, and set PBs in all three lifts. The moral of this story for me was that training frequency is a much looser window, time-wise, than most of the experts believe.

Your two week regimen will be fine, and I'll tell you why: no one ever factors the neural load in. In reality, you are stressing the whole system four times in two weeks—the neural system does not reckon workout A to be different to Workout C. In fact, if you have been working perceptually fairly hard up to now, you might even make better progress on the 'lesser' schedule. 

Try it and please report back!

[simon-yawarakaimon]

interesting, yes I can see the point about neural/CNS load, and it's good to have another anecdotal data point , thanks! I'll report back once I have a sense of how well this is working....