A complete session has a start and a finish that are not the dose. The work in the middle can be Session A, a hip hold, or a later block. The open and the close stay. Athletes who skip them are training an unfinished set. The next-day stretches live on the active-recovery guide. This page is the same day, on the clock you named. Pain is a stop.
Open for about three to five minutes, whether you are alone or with a partner. Name the clock first. Session A is about thirty-five minutes. Say the time you will stop. Do not add a secret second session because the first one felt good. A longer block still gets an end time before the first rep. The timer is a piece of equipment, the same way a mat is.
Name the stop in the same minute. A word you both know, or the word stop, is enough. Either person can use it, and so can the timer. Silence is not a yes. Solo athletes still say the stop out loud once, so the word is in the room before effort climbs. The consent check-in kata is the longer rehearsal: desire, a boundary, pace, and aftercare, specific rather than vague. Foundation week 6 programs that partner round. A written line on a card is the regression for the first ten sessions. Revisit the line if the plan changes mid-session. One consent at the door does not cover a new position.
Take a baseline number on the shared 1–10 before any work set. That number is the open, not a warm-up you skip when you are in a hurry. Then say the pain rule in one sentence: pull, sting, sharpness, numbness, bleeding, or a joint that complains ends the set. Pain is not a warm-up, and it is not a number you train through. If the baseline is already high and unsettled, shorten the clock. Readiness is allowed to change the dose down. It is not a reason to skip the open.
The dose is the middle, and it stays on the card. Breath ladder, tempo, a hip hold, an edge drill, whatever the week says. Keep the RPE the page asked for. If the arousal number climbs about two points past the plan, downshift before you add time. The physiological sigh is the first tool: two inhales through the nose, one long exhale through the mouth. A freeze you can breathe through is the second. Water is allowed in the middle. The middle ends when the clock ends, or when a stop is called, whichever comes first.
Close for about three to five minutes before anyone leaves the room. Five to ten physiological sighs. Water. One line in the training log: finished, incomplete, or pain. An incomplete log is a clean log. A blank log is a missed session, and the missed-week guide tells you not to make it up with a harder day. Hold seconds and the flexibility score stay blank when pain showed up. If you are partnered, aftercare starts before the debrief. One quiet minute. No review of performance in that minute. The longer repair notes live in the culture guides. This close is the minimum that makes the session whole.
Do not skip the close to chase a finish. The close is part of the set. Recovery & Resilience week 1 is the programmed recovery block when Intermediate is open. Its first job is still sleep, mood, and a readiness note. Session A remains the free start. Put this open and this close around it every time you train. This is adult training education. It is not medical advice.