What to do when I fail the ramp up?

What is the recommended action when I fail to progress from one week to another. HBP/PE2 (push ups) seems to be my nemesis. I am struggling to move up to week 9. I can do 5x9r (in fact even 5x10r), but after the deload I cannot do 4x12r. The jump is too big for me.

 

What should one do? I can see a few options:

 

1. Repeat weeks 5 to 8 until I can progress into week 9 on the schedule.

 

2. Keep pushing on 4x12r as well as I can through the cycle and in the next cycle start back up at week 9.

 

3. Create a linear progression between 5x9r and 4x12r and do that as an improvised cycle.

 

What's the best option?

 

I don't really believe in option 1 since I think it won't provide the challenge for my body to justify it to make itself stronger. Option 2 seems logical since it will set the goal of the cycle, but I worry that going to failure on a repeated basis might lead to overtraining. But, probably not... ;-) 3. Seems good also, but I am thinking that 2 might be more effective.

I'm curious about this as well, reached the same issue at the same place (week 9) for rc/pe3. Can do week 7 okay, but fail the last 2 reps of the last 2 sets of week 9 (can't get hands all the way to shoulders).

I don't know the official answer to this but I treat each week as a goal and will strive to complete the sets/rep for that week until I get it, which means I repeat the same week over and over until I get it.

I believe Joshua mentioned he likes to add maybe one rep or so each session/week until reaching the given set/reps. 

I don't know how much help repeating the easier weeks will give you though.

My pov is same as gohei`s. Treat the reps as your next goal; if it takes the week yo work up to it no problem

Thanks Charm,

 

That's number 2 on my list if I got you right. For now I have mainly done number 3 when something like this happens.

 

But, you say "if it takes the week", but the problem is that I cannot always catch up with the master template in a week. The question is what to do if it takes several weeks to catch up with the template.

Erik Rissanen said:

Thanks Charm,

That's number 2 on my list if I got you right. For now I have mainly done number 3 when something like this happens.

But, you say "if it takes the week", but the problem is that I cannot always catch up with the master template in a week. The question is what to do if it takes several weeks to catch up with the template.

Case the first, make sure you are working the right progression for you on one hand, and dont be afraid to work hard (not struggle, work hard) on the other.

Case the second, exercise patience and take the time you need. I would prefer not to use any smaller increments as I see them as an opportunity to say 'set done' too early. I spent almost a month at 5*48 for RC6 before I got it.

Erik,

Don't limit yourself to a single approach

I have used variations of all three with success, depending upon the exercise, the rep count and where I have failed in the micro cycle

For example:

- with FL/PE2 I have run a micro cycle of weeks 5+, and 5++ (my notation), where I have gone to 30 reps and not 36 for the prescribed sets. After deload, I repeat week 5 at 30 reps then go on to week 6 at 36 reps as scheduled. I had found here that the initial jump of 12 reps was too much so broke it down into two micro cycles

- on RC/PE2, I failed at week 9 and I was unlikely to push through to week 11, so I dropped the next week to week 6 prescriptions and cycled on from there (deload kept in line, reps reduced to build up again)

- next time through, I failed again at week 9, RC/PE2, but was ever so close, so I continued to repeat that week (my notation - week 9r) until deload week (at this point I just needed to keep nudging it little by little as I felt I was almost there and not about to burn out on the reps)

- I have now succeeded at 4x12 reps, but can't get 4x15! So I am currently repeating week 10 until deload, adding reps gradually and where I can. This morning I did 15, 15 , 13, 9. I will next micro cycle drop back to week 9 and rebuild

So - try them all!! Find what works for you in which scenario

Michael Taylor said:

So - try them all!! Find what works for you in which scenario

Absolutely this. Remember that unless someone is either the author, mod, or similarly qualified our advice is opinions rather than directions my advice works for me but the only person Im training is myself, you could have any number of differences to me.

You can keep repeating the same 4 weekly cycles till you master them or go down to the previous 4 weekly cycles and build up a little more strength / endurance there or ...

 

someone (???) was having problems making the jumps in hold time in the ABH using the 60 sec mastery template and decided to use the 30 second mastery template to get themselves up to the 30 sec mark because the jumps in hold times were smaller with the 30 sec template.  Maybe this same approach can work for the rep scheme templates although I have not taken the time to analyse it, but at least this approach can work for the hold time mastery templates.

I have been trying to push for 4x12r now and that works well. On my latest workout I could do 12,12,12,5 while I could only do 12,12,6 the workout before that. So this works well with quick improvements. I think I will have 4x12r soon and then I will jump up to aim for 4x15r.

 

I tried previosly to do smaller increments. It works too, but not as quickly I think. It seems the shock of aiming the body for the higher reps makes the body adapt to those higher reps more efficiently than doing the ramp up in smaller steps.

 

I will keep experimenting.