How Come 3,4,5 Day Schedules Are The Length?

I was curious why the 3, 4 an 5 day schedules are the same length. 

If you are training more, shouldn't you reach mastery of a level faster, generally speaking? 

I wondered about this as well...

I think Coach mentioned that there is an inherent advantage training more often if your body recovers well with less rest.

The way I see it is if you choose the 3 day program and find that your progressing well according to the set/rep scheme over 12 weeks then great. If not then you might need more volume so you'd adjust up accordingly.

Right now I'm working on PE1 for all movements on a 3 day schedule M/W/F but I'm working all of them on each of those 3 days. It's working because intensity is quite low at this stage. As exercises get more difficult I may have to split them during the week

If you work 5 days a week instead of 3, you'll experience more strength gains and more hypertrophy in the same amount of time. This means that you might sometimes find that when progressing to a harder exercise, you're able to start on week 5 or even 9. This can't be reliably scheduled though, so it's not explicitly laid out in the book. Either way though, you will still end up bigger and stronger than if you had done 3 days a week. 

Bobby Bogdanovski said:

(...) if you choose the 3 day program and find that your progressing well according to the set/rep scheme over 12 weeks then great. If not then you might need more volume so you'd adjust up accordingly.

Hari_Seldon said:

(...) Either way though, you will still end up bigger and stronger than if you had done 3 days a week. 

That is IF your body ability to recover and adapt is able to cope with the extra stimuli, stress and fatigue.

If not, you might get better gains on a 4 or 3 days schedule than on a 5 days.

To quote Coach, "recovery and adaptation abilities are highly individual."

Hari_Seldon said:

If you work 5 days a week instead of 3, you'll experience more strength gains and more hypertrophy in the same amount of time. This means that you might sometimes find that when progressing to a harder exercise, you're able to start on week 5 or even 9. This can't be reliably scheduled though, so it's not explicitly laid out in the book. Either way though, you will still end up bigger and stronger than if you had done 3 days a week. 

That was a good explanation.

It's always a good idea to stay with the template, because physiologically you will continue to adapt to the exercises for quite a while after you are able to complete "mastery" requirements. All it takes is proper nutritional support, and you'll keep getting stronger for a while. This ends up translating into more strength, which means you start further into the next template with no negative consequences.

If you can't train at this capacity, there's nothing to worry about: The 3 day per week template will still give you plenty of progress!

FredInChina said:

That is IF your body ability to recover and adapt is able to cope with the extra stimuli, stress and fatigue.

If not, you might get better gains on a 4 or 3 days schedule than on a 5 days.

To quote Coach, "recovery and adaptation abilities are highly individual."

That's very important to note. Doing additional work will only help if your body is able to recovery fast enough to take it.

While I am yet to experience the Foundation 1 course, I used to hit the gym quite regularly half a decade ago. I started out thinking "more is more" and worked out 6 times a week in the gym. I also did some running. However, I did not get any stronger.

Later, a friend told me I was training to much and definitely should cut back. I decided to join him. Four times a week, instead of six. No cardio whatsoever. Suddenly, excellent development - I got stronger each and every workout. (While losing the ability to run...)

Life is complex. Development is about balance. Training, rest, nutrition, all are important. Stress too, in my experience, less stress, more gains.

Coach Sommer (or someone else) will probably correct me if what I now claim is incorrect, but, I believe that people are individuals, we are similar in a lot of ways, but, we live different lives and have different backgrounds. It is up to you to try different strategies to find out what works for you. And, Foundation 1 seem to provide a very systematic approach with different levels of workload which you can try out.

Hari_Seldon said:

If you work 5 days a week instead of 3, you'll experience more strength gains and more hypertrophy in the same amount of time. This means that you might sometimes find that when progressing to a harder exercise, you're able to start on week 5 or even 9. This can't be reliably scheduled though, so it's not explicitly laid out in the book. Either way though, you will still end up bigger and stronger than if you had done 3 days a week. 

This makes sense. Thanks!