OK, daughter's safe and well...
Haven't trained properly in over a week as I said.
Hopefully back to it tonight.
My weights routine is the false beginner's routine from Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove's book 'New Rules for Lifting'. It's a great book for beginners or advanced level lifters with all the latest round-ups of the latest tests and studies into lifting, various other exercise science and nutrition (though the nutrition section isn't that great). It teaches you how to design your own programmes, but at the moment I'm doing one of their ready-mades because it makes sense, it seems right for what I want (except for a little too much emphasis on hypertrophy and endurance -15 rep routines - at various stages) and because I want to get to know the workings of a programme before I design my own, and this one gives me a year of exercises.
My goal is basically strength. This programme also involves metabolism speeding 'fat-loss' routines and hypertrophy.
I finished the break-in programme of one month of 2x15 supersets based on deads one session and squats the next, twice a week. Now I'm on a fat-loss programme which is supersets working unrelated muscle groups (for the added element of surprise to prevent adaptation) of 3 x 15 with 75 secs rest three times a week for two weeks. It'll then change to 3 x 12 with 60 secs, and then 3 x 8 with 45.
Here are some questions:
1) If I can't finish the required number of reps I've been changing down ASAP and finishing the number with a lower weight to go out on a high note. Is this a good idea?
2) I can usually finish the reps with the weights I've chosen (though of course, sometimes it's struggle), but then I find 75 secs too short to recover so I'm not so strict in keeping to the recovery period. Is this bad? Should I choose slightly lighter weights so I can stick to the timing, should I just fight through it even if it means not being able to complete the final set, or am I OK in extending the rest period by 10-20 secs?
3) When should I do yoga (I'm pretty much a newb at that too)? I guess that elongating muscles to that extent is bad just before weights. What about a day before (training weights three times a week I only get alternate days rest)? What about immediately after (i.e. will that kind of stretching hamper my muscle recovery?)?
4) When should I do isometrics (and slow sloooow stance work)? As mentioned above the stance work I do is a hard workout in itself. It's a form of endurance. According to studies cited by Cosgrove and Schuler, aerobic endurance work interferes with weights for strength: if you do alternate days the gains are in endurance to the detriment of strength, so you should do it together with your weights, or after and before a full day's rest. So what about anaerobic endurance?
The usual wild guesses/educated answers welcome!