"Mastered" HBP/PE1 with some struggle how do I improve it?

Hey guys,

With my great joy today I managed to do 5x15 HBP PE1.

The last few reps were though and I had to slow down my tempo a bit.

I want to run one more cycle to make sure I'll be able to complete mastery flawlessly next time.

Said so I'm not sure if it's best to go back to regular week 9, to keep doing 5x15 for 3 weeks (after the deload week) or something like 4x15,4x16,5x16?

I just want to avoid to reduce the volume since I can do 4x12 effortlessly and I've been starting over from week 9 few times already.

Would have loved to be able to ask this question on the webinar.

Any suggestions or similar experience?

Thanks

Alessandro

I've experienced the same thing with a few elements.

Personally, when this happens I like going back to week 9 and working through the entire cycle again. I like the change in volume each week, rather than staying at week 11 the whole time. And I feel that it gives me a chance to make sure everything is really nailed down perfectly.That's just me.

I believe it's been stated elsewhere that Coach's preference for situations like this is to go back to week 9 and work through the cycle again (someone please correct me if I'm wrong about this).

In the end though, I think this is a pretty individual thing. I believe other members have just repeated the mastery week 3x after deload. I don't know if anyone has altered the template and done something else. Hopefully others can chime in with their experience.

- Cody

Move to pe2

There are loads of ways to tackle this, what's important is you find the one that works for you.

I've had success by repeating the last cycle as written but also had it fail. I've done a cycle of mastery sets (5x15) which worked one time but not another.

In this case I'd just move on to PE:2 and PE:1 will go into your warm up. Some people have spun their wheels for ages in these early PE's trying to achieve a level of perfection that isn't required (in my humble opinion anyway), in this case the elevated push up is to prepare you for the push up which in turn prepares you for pseudo planche push ups. Your tempo slowing a little doesn't sound like failure to me.

Some options:

1. Next workout you're doing HBP progressions, do 5x15r once again, if you can do that move on.

2. Restart mini-cycle: this helps your recovery from other elements where you can save some energy here and work other elements with a harder effort

3. Restart mini-cycle, but at a higher volume than 4x12 (eg. 5x13, then 5x14, then 5x15, or something of your choosing) - this method may affect your recovery on the other elements though. 

I'd move to PE2.

If you're really unsure, do a mini-cycle with 4x15, 5x15, 5x15.

If you are honest and you think you have mastered the PE, go ahead.

If not and you think it needs refinement, repeat. 

Is a good indicator, but requires honesty. 

Other is a video of your last set and what "struggle" means to you and us

Having that into account, mastery sets of all kinds are strugglin. I can't imagine a SL/PE1 last set of 60 without any struggle for the mayority of us; same with the rest. 

Struggle OK; compromises form/tempo, not much.

Guys thanks for the inputs.

First of all I must have been very sleepy yesterday because the PE in question is actually 2 not 1...

Anyhow. Unfortunately I didn't film myself yesterday so I can't be sure about my form but I think in the last few resp of sets 4 and 5 I didn't squeeze as much as I would have liked at the top of the pushups.

I may be too hard on myself but I'd like to run another cycle and make sure I don't do sloppy reps.

I like to improve my understanding of training and make more conscious decisions, that's why I opened this thread.

Going back to w9 (lowering volume) or keeping/increasing the volume for this exercise in the next weeks will have for sure different results in my performance.

I'm just not sure what to base this decision on.

For now my inclination is to go back to w9 and do every rep as best as possible and if I still have lot of energy after 4x12 i may add one more rep, hope this won't be counterproductive.

FWIW, I've found that when I'm failing on the final few reps, I get much better improvement for me if I don't scale back volume all the way to the first week in a cycle. Instead, I'll do some of my sets at the volume where I'm currently failing and the rest of the sets at the previous week's volume, which I call a "half-week" in my log (Coach Sommer denies the existence of secret week 9.5 to sell the program I think ;-) )

For instance, if I can do 4x12r but fail in the last set of 4x15r, I will scale back to 2x15r/2x12r. With this scheme, I usually can add another set at the higher volume each day and the 4x15r will feel solid when it's time to try it again. Setting the intermediate goal seems both physically and psychologically right for me.

I used to restart cycles and was afraid to do half-weeks because it wasn't a "blessed" volume. But now I only restart a cycle completely if there is an element of form that I am struggling to get right. For building volume, half-weeks work brilliantly for me.

yamad said:

FWIW, I've found that when I'm failing on the final few reps, I get much better improvement for me if I don't scale back volume all the way the first week in a cycle. Instead, I'll do some of my sets at the volume where I'm currently failing and the rest of the sets at the previous week's volume, which I call a "half-week" in my log (Coach Sommer denies the existence of secret week 9.5 to sell the program I think ;-) )

For instance, if I can do 4x12r but fail in the last set of 4x15r, I will scale back to 2x15r/2x12r. With this scheme, I usually can add another set at the higher volume each day and the 4x15r will feel solid when it's time to try it again. Setting the intermediate goal seems both physically and psychologically right for me.

I used to restart cycles and was afraid to do half-weeks because it wasn't a "blessed" volume. But now I only restart a cycle completely if there is an element of form that I am struggling to get right. For building volume, half-weeks work brilliantly for me.

Thanks for sharing yamad,

It's an interesting approach for sure.

I'm about to finish this PE, happy this has been discussed so I can post a vid to be critiqued!! Love the forum!!