Question On Cycles And Deloading

P5yx said:

(...) would you suggest training every pe for at least one month no matter what?

 

Hummm... it is not "no matter what", but really a case by case question.

It also depends on your understanding of "mastery".

If you believe that your execution of the movement can be significantly improved by spending a microcycle on it, by all means go ahead and do it!

What it means is that it wasn't "mastery" in the first place, and you benefited substantially from that cycle. If in doubt, do that "extra" cycle

guys..sorry if this was here before..cant find it..    what is microcycle?   

A microcycle is four weeks. Weeks 1-4, 5-8 or 9-12.

Am I right in assuming that the purpose of the deload weeks is to enable your body to recover and grease the groove with the movement at a lower level? I have been tending to omit them because I work long shifts and this means I weekly have 3 or 4 days where I cannot train at all so I feel I am getting my recovery in then.

I am loathe to spend the extra weeks the deloads would add to the program if it is only to hone the movement. I have not had any problems with the exercises so far or injuries etc (only on F1 apart from HBP) basically my question is

a) Am I right in my grease the groove theory?

b) If so how important is the grease the groove aspect in comparison to the recovery aspect?

I understand as the movements get harder this may change.
Thanks in advance for any replies.

IBGC said:

Am I right in assuming that the purpose of the deload weeks is to enable your body to recover and grease the groove with the movement at a lower level? I have been tending to omit them because I work long shifts and this means I weekly have 3 or 4 days where I cannot train at all so I feel I am getting my recovery in then.

I am loathe to spend the extra weeks the deloads would add to the program if it is only to hone the movement. I have not had any problems with the exercises so far or injuries etc (only on F1 apart from HBP) basically my question is

a) Am I right in my grease the groove theory?

b) If so how important is the grease the groove aspect in comparison to the recovery aspect?

I understand as the movements get harder this may change.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

As far as I know (not a professional here) deloads are to give you a chance to recover from intensive work without losing strength gains.  Most good programs have them.  I can't say that you're recovering better without including them, but if it hasn't hurt you yet....

Just remember to pay attention to your body.  It doesn't hurt to take a week off every now and then, especially if you're not including deload weeks into your program.

Oh, and they will become far more important by the time you get to F4 and beyond.

What if you can't complete let's say week 10 for a certain exercise since you fail to meet the prescribed amount of reps. How does this affect your deload week ??? Do you try to complete the desired reps the next workout, but this way you move up your deload week to a week later ? Or do you repeat the microcycle starting from week 9 ?

twan said:

What if you can't complete let's say week 10 for a certain exercise since you fail to meet the prescribed amount of reps. How does this affect your deload week ??? Do you try to complete the desired reps the next workout, but this way you move up your deload week to a week later ? Or do you repeat the microcycle starting from week 9 ?

You should not delay your deload week. I have been having trouble meeting some of the required sets/reps for some weeks and I just keep on trying until I upgrade to the next week, as long as it takes, but I always keep every fourth week a deload week.

Yep, every fourth week do half the number of reps you have worked up to, whatever number that is.

Ok, thanks Weezer.

When you progress through F1 and the exercises start to becoming intense, you THANK COACH these "deload weeks" with a half of the volume.

Adriano Flo said:

When you progress through F1 and the exercises start to becoming intense, you THANK COACH these "deload weeks" with a half of the volume.

I think they started becoming intense for me around PE1 - PE2, by week 3 of the program I was dreaming of week 4.

Hey,

Thanks to Cory, we have another point describing failures added to F1 FAQ.

That may answer some of questions asked above.

regards,

If some element is easy for me ( for exemple MN/PE1) can i try to master it right away ? Or i need to spend 4 weeks working on it before i try to master it ?

I personally will get to week 7 and if i manage it but it is a complete struggle I find I need to repeat week 7 the next week as well instea of doing a Deload because after the Deload I have no chance at doing week 7 reps again. It isn't always just sometimes I find it better to throw in an extra week of the exercises before I bring a Deload week in.

If you think you can master an element, then go ahead and try to right away. Make sure to film yourself to check that your form is good. Also remember to take no rest!

Joshua Slocum said:

If you think you can master an element, then go ahead and try to right away. Make sure to film yourself to check that your form is good. Also remember to take no rest!

So first i do strenght move of some progression and then iM right after strenght move and repeat that for 5 sets without any rest at all ?

Is it ok if i try to master couple of elements in one training sesion or that would be to much ?

Correct. For testing mastery, your work set would look like this:

PE

iM

PE

iM

PE

iM

PE

iM

PE

iM

With no rest in between the PE's and the iM's.

If you think you can master more than one element at a time, by all means go for it.

Thanks.

Joshua Slocum said:

Correct. For testing mastery, your work set would look like this:

PE

iM

PE

iM

PE

iM

PE

iM

PE

iM

With no rest in between the PE's and the iM's. ...

Does this count only for testing mastery or i need to do all workouts without rest between PE and PE>iM ?

Paf said:

Does this count only for testing mastery or i need to do all workouts without rest between PE and PE>iM ?

 

You shouldn't rest between PE's and iM's, even if you're not testing for mastery. 

However, you can take a short break (e.g. take a quick stretch, get a drink of water, that sort of thing) when moving from one exercise to the next. 

Im sure that i can master HBP/PE1 (with iM also) and here is a problem; If i try to master it at Monday and i master it then will it be ok if i start with HBP/PE2 week 5 programing at Friday and next week i move to week 6 programing of HBP/PE2  ? I will work on F3/F4 three times a week, HBP will be at Mondays and Fridays.

Yeah that should be fine. Just make sure to keep all your deloads in sync.

Quick question everyone on the definition of weeks

On the medium program we have the following schedule:

Workout 1 - Workout 2 - rest - Workout 3 - Workout 4

Do you then rest 2 days before starting workout 1 on the same days as the previous week 

Or

Rest 1 day as per between workout 2 and workout 3??

If you can keep the workouts on the same day it will likely help you build a routine. Take two days off between workouts 4 & 1.

A quick question, gentlemen,

Should I keep on re-doing the last block (weeks 9-12) until that element feels as natural as walking or rotating palm?
If I complete it at mastery but with a slight discomfort, would it be better to repeat the last microcycle one more time? I want to make sure there's no huge leap between one PE and the following. Like you can do FL PE1 and then move to PE2 knowing that it will not be significantly harder because you did appropriate work previously and PE1 feels no other than natural. You get me?