Mastery questions

So after Coach Sommers recent posts on pushing yourself hard, I got a couple more questions.

1. Let's say I'm doing 4 day split, I don't demonstrate mastery on Monday, but do on Thursday, does that demonstrate mastery? Or should I be achieve it on both days to count.

2. If I demonstrated mastery but found it ridiculously challenging, should I repeat micro cycle or move on to next exercise?

I think it should count since on the first day of foundation you test for mastery and only need to do it once to move on. I've heard on the board that if it's ridiculously hard you should micro cycle since it's supposed to be "mastery" however. 

Just how I see it

DESTINY said:

I think it should count since on the first day of foundation you test for mastery and only need to do it once to move on. I've heard on the board that if it's ridiculously hard you should micro cycle since it's supposed to be "mastery" however. 

 

Just how I see it

but then after Coach Sommer's recent posts, you should be pushing yourself hard.  so no matter how hard it took to finish the mastery sets, you should be able to push yourself to mastery from then on cuz you've already done it?

Be careful with this one.  If you're not advancing at the set pace (every week, on the week) then you're liable to lose mastery.  I've had moments where I got mastery through sheer determination, had a deload week, and couldn't get mastery again after that.

I think if you can't do it twice, it doesn't really count.

Hmms said:

but then after Coach Sommer's recent posts, you should be pushing yourself hard.  so no matter how hard it took to finish the mastery sets, you should be able to push yourself to mastery from then on cuz you've already done it?

Idk I think doing it just once is adequate as it was for the first day of foundations BUT you have to have it "mastered" so there really shouldn't be doubt about whether or not you could repeat it. Say you push yourself hard through it and complete mastery but it wasn't pretty, maybe do another cycle so it's easier. 

You can still push yourself hard to get to mastery numbers but after a cycle you might not need to push yourself so hard anymore and that would be "mastery"

once again just my opinion 

edit: I think I misread this post

just because you did it once doesn't mean you can do it again especially after struggling to do it. I've regressed a few times on a few pes 

You should be able to do it on both days. If you've done once you're not far off so it's better do another one month cycle as you'll usually get it by then.

I just recently did a mastery week and on Tuesday I did it ( last set was tough but I didn't lose form) but on Friday on the last 2 sets my form broke down and I couldn't do it properly. I was really confused because Tuesday wasn't so bad anyway I tried it again today and turns out that Friday was just a bad day and I was feeling really tired that day because today it was pretty easy again.

So if you fail one out of 2 days ona mastery week I'd suggest doing the deload and then the start of the new cycle see if you can do mastery, if you can move on as normal otherwise repeat the last mini cycle.

I have a related question I'd like to add.

What are you thoughts if it's a move you haven't done much and feels a little unfamiliar but you can complete the reps with good form?

After working Cossack squats a couple time during the week, I decided to test myself. I wasn't really following the schedule but I wanted to try and I completed the reps with strength to spare.

I was thinking of moving on but continuing to include the Cossack squats and twist squats as part of my warmup.

ausswe said:

So if you fail one out of 2 days ona mastery week I'd suggest doing the deload and then the start of the new cycle see if you can do mastery, if you can move on as normal otherwise repeat the last mini cycle.

Good advice. 

The Hansenator said:

I was thinking of moving on but continuing to include the Cossack squats and twist squats as part of my warmup.

This is a good idea. Do some more work to build up your familiarity with the movement, but otherwise move on. 

My rule of thumb for mastery is that if mastery is easy, then it's a pass, but if mastery is hard, then multiple attempts are required to validate it.