Question On Cycles And Deloading

Vytautas Pilkauskas said:

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?

The better for truly mastery would be to have some fuel in the tank after your last set, that you can even do another set or extra reps, like some kind of supercompensation.

Hi All,

I have been wondering about the deload weeks for awhile now.  I started the program in January with a partner (he's actually a gymnast I coach, but he's 17 so I consider him my workout partner) and we have been doing the mastery sets (week 11 of an exercise) about once a week (progessing on average one exercise per week for all 7 categories).  The only real deload we've had was when he hurt himself tumbling in the grass at the library.  I tried to redo some things that were difficult for me while I was waiting, and after a few weeks he is now back to full speed.

We only get to workout together 1-2 times per week so that's as fast as we can test mastery (about one level per week).  But since we are always doing week 11 we have no "deload" weeks.  We still do gymnastics but not much because I am excited about how much progress we are making with foundations - every time we do gymnastics things get easier.

I figured since we are only doing each exercise once per week we are getting enough rest, but am I missing something?  The whole concept of a whole week of rest per month is new for me, so I'm trying to understand it.

Thanks,

Robert

Robert Davis said:

Hi All,

I have been wondering about the deload weeks for awhile now.  I started the program in January with a partner (he's actually a gymnast I coach, but he's 17 so I consider him my workout partner) and we have been doing the mastery sets (week 11 of an exercise) about once a week (progessing on average one exercise per week for all 7 categories).  The only real deload we've had was when he hurt himself tumbling in the grass at the library.  I tried to redo some things that were difficult for me while I was waiting, and after a few weeks he is now back to full speed.

 

We only get to workout together 1-2 times per week so that's as fast as we can test mastery (about one level per week).  But since we are always doing week 11 we have no "deload" weeks.  We still do gymnastics but not much because I am excited about how much progress we are making with foundations - every time we do gymnastics things get easier.

 

I figured since we are only doing each exercise once per week we are getting enough rest, but am I missing something?  The whole concept of a whole week of rest per month is new for me, so I'm trying to understand it.

Thanks,

Robert

If you are consistently passing elements with mastery you do not need the deload weeks since the elements most likely is not challenging you enough.

Deloading is good when you are training at the brink of your body's max capacity most of the time and then give one week to let your body catch up. If you are not doing that then there is no purpose for deloading.

Thanks Alexander.  I often look ahead a few exercises and think "How are we gonna do that?" but once we get there we can do them.  These progressions work!

Hey.

I got a question about sync deload weeks.

Currently, I'm on another week on each element and my deload week are definitely not synced..

How can I make them be synced so it the deload week will be effective?

That's where I'm currently at in each element:

FL/PE6 week 2, sPL/PE2 week 6, SL/PE4 week 3, MN/PE2 week 1 (repeating block 1 to work on perfect form and endurance for more than 7 months..), SLS/SE3 week 6, HBP/PE2 week 6 (repeating block 1 to work on perfect form endurance for a year I think...), RC/PE4 week 4.. 

The basic idea with deload is to cut your volume in half. So to keep it easy if you are doing a customised template. Using your work sets from week 3, during deload, do the same number of sets but cut all reps in half.

it is critical that you deload everything during deload week, no matter where you are in the template.

I understand. so if yesterday I did my second F7 session for this week (2xF7 schedule) so the next session and one after him next week I should do deload for all of the elements no matter where I am in the template?

Yes

Ok, it's good to know, I've been training like this for a long time and didn't know what to do with the unsynced deload weeks.

reading a lot and just wanted to make sure...

In the courses, a mastery template is divided in blocks and weeks.

In the forum, cycles and minicycles are also mentioned frequently.

Is a cycle the same as a block? and a minicycle the same as a week?

so, if I someone says "I do 3rd minicycle" that could be either a week 3 or a week 7 or a week 11, isnt it?

At least the way I use it; a cycle would be 3 blocks (aka micro cycles)

In other words, a cycle would be going from week 1 to week 12 and starting on the next element. At least in a perfect world, as we often get stuck on a particular micro cycle (block) and need to cycle it a number of times to master it and move on.

Does that help?

Yes, it helps alot!

I wanted to edit my post once I send it, but I couldnt yet.

P.S: so lets cycle microcyles from a cycle when it is need it!

Just a quick question to get some advice on my proposed de-load strategy - I realise most of this will depend on how my body copes over time, but any thoughts would be appreciated.

*So I get that we need to keep the GB blocks in sync, and that should be pretty straightforward.

*I'm also doing olympic lifting and some CF workouts, with my priority order being GB > Oly > CF - so depending on how my body feels I'll adapt my training to suit whatever enables me to meet those priorities.

*I'm noticing that the pseudo-planche work (HBP/PE3 & sPL/PE5) is causing the thumb joint to ache a bit afterwards (not pain - the kind of 'OK, I need rest/I still need rest now' type feeling).  This is compounded I think by stuff like ring pushups, ring dips/support holds and overhead squats, where there's a lot of load going onto that joint.  I'm trying to space it out so I have at least two days between loading this joint with any of those movements, but it is taking longer to recover than that.  I wonder if training these elements on different days might be another acceptable approach?

*My plan is that in my GB de-load weeks I will completely come away from the offending non-GB movements (i.e. no Oly lifting or rings that week), and do the de-load as directed.

*For these weeks, I'm going to sub my oly/CF stuff for low-impact cardio-type stuff (rowing, cycling, swimming) - although I'm tempted to keep a reduced load/rep scheme set of squats/deadlifts in there?

*Also, would HIT-type training that's low impact on the joints (i.e. 10 round airdyne sprints) interfere with recovery?

*Also, I'm assuming no de-loading is necessary for stretch courses, so I can carry on as normal?

Thanks all

Wow, man, sounds like a pretty full plate. I guess my first question is why are you including ring work like dips and such when you haven't mastered preceding dip variations first? Is it any wonder? Basically, you haven't even gotten to regular dips according to your signature and you're already training ring dips. I'm guessing because of Crossfit, in which case I suggest you choose workouts and movements that won't interfere with your GB strength training if that's priority for you.

Secondly, it's cool if you want to incorporate another training modality, plenty of people do that successfully. But it seems to me that if you pursue three modalities at once, your progress in all three is going to suffer. And you're asking about HIT on top of all that. It's like you've come to a fork in the road and decided to take all paths at once. You don't get very far that way.

No deload for stretch courses. Also, you could try throwing in wrist stretches from H1 before planche work, but mainly I think you need to make some choices here about your goals.

Thanks Trw - It probably makes it sound like more than I'm actually doing - finding a balance is an ongoing process.

Re: the ring work - I don't think this is an issue per se, just that I probably chose the wrong day to play around: I'm not training them like I train the GB elements - I was doing ring dips and push ups before I started GB. What happened was that I got from false grip pull ups to muscle ups and hit a wall with elbow pain. When I saw Coach's podcast on Barbell Shrugged, I knew I'd have to go a long way back before I could move forward with more advanced stuff like this ( I haven't even tried a muscle up again yet, and won't play around with them again until I'm doing the recommended number of Russian dips, which I think Coach recommended as a baseline for just playing around win a muscle up, not properly training them - at the moment I'm way off of that Russian Dips anyway).

With the dips, push ups and false grip pull ups, these are things I play around with when time and capacity allows (they're fun to do). Probably misjudged that this week, and we'll put that down as a learning experience. When I do play around with these, I prioritise as much of the technique as I've been able to learn so far - so I'm not trying to blast out a load of reps, typically I'll try to do three slow ones with as good form as I can, then on the third, lock and turn the elbows and hold the support for as long as I can. I've not had any issues with these before, just doing them on the same day as plan he I think was probably a mistake that I'll learn from.

Sorry if it's obvious, but is programming the week after a deload the same as the week before? For example, I did FL/PE5 4X48s, and RC/PE6 test mastery (didn't master), but now after a deload week, I have the same set and rep scheme and it says to test mastery again on RC/PE6 instead of using the results I logged for testing mastery on that element.

Thanks!

Hey Zareth.  I recommend restarting the last micro cycle for those elements i.e start them both at step 7.